t 


EVOLUTION  OF  THE 
JAPANESE 

SOCIAL  AND  PSrCHIC 


SIDNEY    L.  GULICK,  M.  A. 

Missionary  of  the  American  Board 
in  Japan 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 

London    and    Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1903,  by 
FLEMING   H.    REVELL   COMPANY 
{May) 


REFSE 


New  York  :  1 58  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago  :  63  Washington  Street 
Toronto  :  27  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London  :  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh  :     30  St.   Mary   Street 


PREFACE 

The  present  work  is  an  attempt  to  interpret  the 
characteristics  of  modern  Japan  in  the  Hght  of  social 
science.  It  also  seeks  to  throw  some  light  on  the 
vexed  question  as  to  the  real  character  of  so-called 
race-nature,  and  the  processes  by  which  that  na- 
ture is  transformed.  If  the  principles  of  social  science 
here  set  forth  are  correct,  they  apply  as  well  to  China 
and  India  as  to  Japan,  and  thus  will  bear  directly  on  the 
entire  problem  of  Occidental  and  Oriental  social  inter- 
course and  mutual  influence. 

The  core  of  this  work  consists  of  addresses  to  Ameri- 
can and  English  audiences  delivered  by  the  writer  dur- 
ing his  recent  furlough.  Since  returning  to  Japan,  he 
has  been  able  to  give  but  fragments  of  time  to  the  com- 
pletion of  the  outlines  then  sketched,  and  though  he 
would  gladly  reserve  the  manuscript  for  further  elabo- 
ration, he  yields  to  the  urgency  of  friends  who  deem  it 
wise  that  he  delay  no  longer  in  laying  his  thought  be- 
fore the  wider  public. 

To  Japanese  readers  the  writer  wishes  to  say  that 
although  he  has  not  hesitated  to  make  statements  pain- 
ful to  a  lover  of  Japan,  he  has  not  done  it  to  condemn 
or  needlessly  to  criticise,  but  simply  to  make  plain 
what  seem  to  him  to  be  the  facts.  If  he  has  erred  in 
his  facts  or  if  his  interpretations  reflect  unjustly  on  the 
history  or  spirit  of  Japan,  no  one  will  be  more  glad  than 
he  for  corrections.  Let  the  Japanese  be  assured  that 
his  ruling  motive,  both  in  writing  about  Japan  and  in 
spending  his  life  in  this  land,  is  profound  love  for  the 
Japanese  people.  The  term  "  native  "  has  been  freely 
used  because  it  is  the  only  natural  correlative  for  "  for- 
eign."    It  may  be  well  to  say  that  neither  the  one  nor 


vi  PREFACE 

the  other  has  any  derogatory  impHcation,  although 
anti-foreign  natives,  and  anti-native  foreigners,  some- 
times so  use  them. 

The  indebtedness  of  the  writer  is  too  great  to  be 
acknowledged  in  detail.  But  whenever  he  has  been 
conscious  of  drawing  directly  from  any  author  for  ideas 
or  suggestions,  effort  has  been  made  to  indicate  the 
source. 

Since  the  preparation  of  the  larger  part  of  this  work 
several  important  contributions  to  the  literature  on 
Japan  have  appeared  which  would  have  been  of  help  to 
the  writer,  could  he  have  referred  to  them  during  the 
progress  of  his  undertaking.  Rev.  J.  C.  C.  Newton's 
"Japan:  Country,  Court,  and  People";  Rev.  Otis  Cary's 
"Japan  and  Its  Regeneration";  and  Prof.  J.  Nitobe's 
"  Bushido:  The  Soul  of  Japan,"  call  for  special  mention. 
All  are  excellent  works,  interesting,  condensed,  inform- 
ative, and  well-balanced.  Had  the  last  named  come  to 
hand  much  earlier  it  would  have  received  frequent  ref- 
erence and  quotation  in  the  body  of  this  volume,  de- 
spite the  fact  that  it  sets  forth  an  ideal  rather  than  the 
actual  state  of  Old  Japan. 

Special  acknowledgment  should  be  made  of  the  help 
rendered  by  my  brothers,  Galen  M.  Fisher  and  Edward 
L.  Gulick,  and  by  my  sister,  Mrs.  F.  F.  Jewett,  in  read- 
ing and  revising  the  manuscript.  Acknowledgment 
should  also  be  made  of  the  invaluable  criticisms  and 
suggestions  in  regard  to  the  general  theory  of  social 
evolution  advocated  in  these  pages  made  by  my  uncle. 
Rev.  John  T.  Gulick,  well  known  to  the  scientific  world 
for  his  contributions  to  the  theory  as  well  as  to  the  facts 
of  biological  evolution. 

S.  L.  G. 

Matsuyama,  Japan. 


CONTENTS 


„>v 


INTRODUCTION 13 

I.     PRELIMINARY  CONSIDERATIONS 

Occidental  conceptions  of  the  recent  history  of  Japan — Japan 
seems  to  be  contradicting  our  theory  of  national  evolu- 
tion— Similarities  of  ancient  and  modern  Japan — Jap- 
anese evolution  is  "  natural  " — The  study  of  Japanese 
social  evolution  is  of  unusual  interest,  because  it  has  ex- 
perienced such  marked  changes — Because  it  is  now  in 
a  stage  of  rapid  growth — And  is  taking  place  before  our 
eyes — Also  because  here  is  taking  place  a  unique  union  of 
Occidental  and  Oriental  civilizations — Comparison  be- 
tween India  and  Japan, 23 

II.    HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

Mythology  and  tradition — Authentic  history — Old  Japan — 
The  transition  from  Old  to  New  Japan — New  Japan — 
Compelled  by  foreign  nations  to  centralize — Ideals  and 
material  instrurnents  supplied  from  abroad — Exuberant 
Patriotism — "  Ai-koku-shin,"  35 

III.  THE  PROBLEM  OF   PROGRESS 

Is  Japan  making  progress? — Happiness  as  a  criterion — The 
oppressive  rule  of  militarism — The  emptiness  of  the 
ordinary  life — The  condition  of  woman — "  The  Greater 
Learning  for  Woman  " — Divorce — Progress  defined — 
Deficiency  of  the  hedonistic  criterion  of  progress,  .       52 

IV.  THE  METHOD    OF   PROGRESS 

Progress  a  modern  conception  and  ideal — How  was  the 
"cake  of  custom"  broken? — "Government  by  discus- 
sion "  an  insufficient  principle  of  progress — Two  lines  of 


I 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

progress,  Ideal  and  Material — The  significance  of  Perry's 
coming  to  Japan — Effect  on  Japan  of  Occidental  ideas — 
The  material  element  of  progress — Mistaken  praise  of 
the  simplicity  of  Old  Japan,  L.  Hearn — The  significance 
of  the  material  clement  of  civilization — Mastery  of 
nature — The  defect  of   Occidental   civilization,       .        .      6i 


V.     JAPANESE     SENSITIVENESS    TO 
ENVIRONMENT 

Our  main  question  —  Illustrations  —  Japanese  students 
abroad — Sensitiveness  to  ridicule — Advantages  and  dis- 
advantages of  this  characteristic — National  sensitiveness 
to  foreign  criticism — Nudity — Formosa — Mental  and 
physical  tlexibility — Adjustability — Some  apparent  ex- 
ceptions— Chinese  ideographs — How  account  for  these 
characteristics,  


VI.     WAVES  OF  FEELING— ABDICATION 

The  Japanese  are  emotional — An  illustration  from  politics — 
The  tendency  to  run  to  extremes — Danger  of  over- 
emphasizing this  tendency — Japanese  silent  dissent — 
Men  of  balance  in  public  life — Abdication — Gubbins 
quoted — Is  abdication  an  inherent  trait?  ...      82 


VII.     HEROES  AND  HERO-WORSHIP 

Popular  national  heroes — The  craving  for  modern  heroes — 
Tovi^nsend  Harris's  insight  into  Oriental  character — 
Hero-worship  an  obstacle  to  missionary  work — Capt. 
Jaynes— An  experience  in  Kumamoto — "  The  sage  of 
Omi  " — "  The  true  hero  " — Moral  heroes  in  Japan — The 
advantage  and  disadvantage  of  hero-worship — IModcrn 
moral  heroes — Hero-worship  depends  on  personality  and 
idealism — The  new  social  order  is  producing  new  ideals 
and  new  heroes, 8g 

VIII.     LOVE  FOR  CHILDREN 

Japanese  love  for  children — Children's  festivals — Toys  and 
toy-stores^ — Do  Japanese  love  children  more  than  Amer- 
icans do? — Importance  in  Japan  of  maintaininc:  the 
family  line — The  looseness  of  the  Japanese  family  tic 
— Early  cessation  of  demonstrative  affection — Infan- 
ticide,  q6 


CONTENTS 
IX.     MARITAL  LOVE 

Affection  between  husband  and  wife — Occidental  and  Orien- 
tal estimate  of  woman  contrasted — This  a  subject  easily 
misunderstood — Kissing  a  social  habit  unknown  in 
Japan — Demonstrative  affection  a  social,  not  a  racial 
characteristic — Some  specific  illustrations,  Dr.  Nee- 
sima  —  A  personal  experience  —  Illegitimate  children  — 
Fraudulent  registration — Adult  adoption— Divorce — 
Monogamy,  polygamy,  and  prostitution — Race  character, 
social  order,  and  affection — Position  of  women — The  so- 
cial order  and  affection — The  social  order  and  the  valu- 
ation of  man  and  woman — The  new  social  order  and  the 
valuation  of  man — The  spread  of  Christian  ideals  and 
the    re-organization    of    the    family,        .        .        .        . 


X.      CHEERFULNESS— INDUSTRY- 
TRUTHFULNESS— SUSPICIOUSNESS 

Japanese  cheerfulness — Festivals — Pessimism  existent,  but 
easily  overlooked — The  ubiquity  of  children  gives  an 
appearance  of  cheerfulness — Industry — Illustrations — 
Easy-going — Sociological  interpretation — Mutual  confi- 
dence and  trustfulness — Relation  to  communalistic 
feudalism — Changes  in  the  social  order  and  in  charac- 
ter— The  American  Board's  experience  in  trusting  Jap- 
anese honor — The  Doshisha  and  its  difficulties — Sus- 
piciousness— Necessary  under  the  old  social  order — 
The  need  of  constant  care  in  conversation,        .        .        •    iiS 


XI.     JEALOUSY— REVENGE— HUMANE 
FEELINGS 

Jealousy  particularly  ascribed  to  women — How  related  to  the 
social  order — Is  jealousy  limited  to  women? — Revenge — 
Taught  as  a  moral  duty — Revenge  and  the  new  social 
order — Are  the  Japanese  cruel? — First  impressions — 
Treatment  of  the  insane — Of  lepers — The  cruelty  and 
hardness  of  heart  of  Old  Japan — Buddhistic  teaching 
and  practice — Buddhist  and  Christian  Orphan  Asy- 
lums— Treatment  of  horses — Torture  in  Old  Japan — 
Crucifixion  and  transfixion  by  spears — Hard-hearted- 
ness  cultivated  under  feudalism — Cruelty  and  the  hu- 
mane feelings  in  the  Occident — Abolition  of  cruel  cus- 
toms in  ancient  and  in  Old  Japan — Cruelty  a  sociolog- 
ical, not  a  biological  characteristic — The  rise  of  humane 
feelings — Doctors  and  hospitals — Philanthropy,      .        .    I27 


4  CONTENTS 

XII.     AMBITION— CONCEIT 

PAGE 

Ambition,  both  individual  and  national — The  "  Kumamoto 
Band  " — Sclf-confidcncc  and  conceit — Refined  in  na- 
ture— Ilkistrations  in  the  use  of  English — Readiness  of 
young  men  to  assume  grave  responsibilities — A  product 
of  the  social  order — Assumptions  of  inferiority  by  the 
common  people — Obsequiousness — Modern  self-confi- 
dence and  assumptions  not  without  ground — Self-con- 
fidence and  success — Self-confidence  and  physical  size — 
Young  men  and  the  recent  history  of  Japan — The  self- 
confidence  and  conceit  of  Western  nations — The  open- 
mindedness    of    most    Japanese, 137 

XIII.  PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS- 

COURAGE 

*'  Yamato-Damashii  "  :  "  The  Soul  of  Japan  " — Patriotism 
and  the  recent  war  with  China — Patriotism  of  Christian 
orphans — Mr.  Ishii — Patriotism  is  for  a  person,  not  for 
country — National  patriotism  is  modern — Passionate  de- 
votion to  the  Emperor — A  gift  of  20,000,000  yen  to  the 
Emperor — The  constitution  derives  its  authority  from 
the  Emperor — A  quotation  from  Prof.  Yamaguchi — Jap- 
anese Imperial  succession  is  of  Oriental  t3'pe — Concu- 
bines and  children  of  the  reigning  Emperor — Apotheosis, 
Oriental  and  Occidental — Apotheosis  and  national 
unity — The  political  conflict  between  Imperial  and  popu- 
lar sovereignty — Japanese  and  Roman  apotheosis — Prof. 
Nash  quoted — Courage — Cultivated  in  ancient  times — 
A  peculiar  feature  of  Japanese  courage — "  Harakiri " — 
W.  E.  Griffis  quoted — A  boy  hero — Relation  of  courage 
to  social  order — Japanese  courage  not  only  physical — 
A  modern  instance  of  moral  courage,        ....     144 

XIV.  FICKLENESS— STOLIDITY- 

STOICISM 

Illustrations  of  fickleness — Prof.  Chamberlain's  explana- 
tion— Fickleness  a  modern  trait — Continuity  of  purpose 
in  spite  of  changes  of  method — The  youth  of  those  on 
whom  responsibility  rests — Fluctuation  of  interest  in 
Christianity  not  a  fair  illustration — The  period  of  fluc- 
tuation is  passing  away — Tmpassiveness — "  Putty 
faces" — Distinguish  between  stupidity  and  stoicism — 
Stupid  stolidity  among  the  farmers — Easily  removed — 
Social  stolidity  cultivated — Demrmded  by  the  old  social 
order — The  indiuMHH'  of  Buddhism  in  suppressing  ex- 
pression of  emotion — An  illuslration  of  suppressed  ciu-i- 
osity — Lack  of  emotional  manifestations  when  the  Em- 


CONTENTS  5 

PAGE 

peror  appears  in  public — Stolidity  a  social,  not  a  racial 
trait — A  personal  experience — The  increased  vivacity  of 
Christian  women — Relations  of  emotional  to  intellectual 
development  and  to  the  social  order,        ....     159 


XV.     .ESTHETIC  CHARACTERISTICS 

The  wide  development  of  the  aesthetic  sense  in  Japan — 
Japanese  aesthetic  development  is  unbalanced — The  sense 
of  smell — Painting — Japanese  art  pays  slight  attention  to 
the  human  form — Sociological  interpretation — The  nude 
in  Japanese  art — Relation  to  the  social  order — Art  and 
immorality — Caricature — Fondness  for  the  abnormal  in 
nature — Abnormal  stones — Tosa  cocks — Esthetics  of 
speech — The  aesthetic  sense  and  the  use  of  personal 
pronouns — Deficiency  of  the  aesthetic  development  in 
regard  to  speech — Sociological  explanations — Close  re- 
lation of  aesthetics  and  conduct — Sociological  explana- 
tion for  the  wide  development  of. the  aesthetic  sense — 
The  classes  lived  in  close  proximity — The  spirit  of  de- 
pendence and  imitation — Universality  of  culture  more 
apparent  than  real — Defects  of  a:sthetic  taste — Defective 
etiquette — How  accounted  for — Old  and  new  condi- 
tions— "  Western  taste  debasing  Japanese  art " — Illus- 
tration of  aboriginal  aesthetic  defects — Colored  photo- 
graphs—esthetic defects  of  popular  shrines — The  aes- 
thetics of  music — Experience  of  the  Hawaiian  people — 
Literary  aesthetic  development — Aston  quoted — Archi- 
tectural aesthetic  development — Esthetic  development  is 
sociological  rather  than  biological,  ....     170 

XVI.     MEMORY— IMITATION 

Psychological  unity  of  the  East  and  the  West— Brain  size 
and  social  evolution — The  size  of  the  Japanese  brain — 
Memory— Learning  Chinese  characters — Social  selection 
and  mnemonic  power — Japanese  memory  in  daily  life — 
Memory  of  uncivilized  and  semi-civilized  peoples — Hin-* 
du  memory — Max  Miiller  quoted — Japanese  acquisition 
of  foreign  languages — The  argument  from  language  for 
the  social  as  against  the  biological  distinction  of  races — 
The  faculty  of  imitation  ;  is  not  to  be  despised — Prof. 
Charnberlain's  over-emphasis  of  Japanese  imitation — 
Originality  in  adopting  Confucianism  and  Buddhism — 
"  Shinshu  " — "  Nichirenshu  "  —  Adoption  of  Chinese 
philosophy — Dr.  Knox's  over-emphasis  of  servile  adop- 
tion— Our  ignorance  of  Japanese  history  of  thought — A 
reason  for  Occidental  misunderstanding — The  incubus 
of  governmental  initiative — Relation  of  imitation  to  the 
social  order, 189 


V 


I 


6  CONTENTS 

XVII.    ORIGINALITY— INVENTIVENESS 

PAGE 

Originality  in  art — Authoritative  suppression  of  originality — 
Townsend  Harris  quoted — Suppression  of  Christianity 
and  of  heterodox  Confucianism — Modern  suppression  of 
historical  research — Yet  Jaiian  is  not  wholly  lacking  in 
originality — Recent  discoveries  and  inventions — Orig- 
inality in  borrowing  from  the  West — Quotations  from  a 
native  paper, 203 

XVIII.    INDIRECTNESS—"  NOMINALITY  " 

"  Roundaboutness  " — Some  advantages  of  this  characteris- 
tic— Illustrations — Study  of  English  for  direct  and  ac- 
curate habits  of  thought — Rapid  modern  growth  of  di- 
rectness— "  Nominality  " — All  Japanese  history  an  illus- 
tration— The  Imperial  rule  only  nominal — The  daimyo 
as  a  figure-head — "  Nominality  "  in  ordinary  life — In 
family  relations — Illustrations  in  Christian  work — A 
"  nominal  "  express  train — "  Nominality  "  and  the  social 
order, 210 

XIX.     INTELLECTUALITY 

Do  Japanese  lack  the  higher  mental  faculties? — Evidence  of 
inventions — Testimony  of  foreign  teachers — Japanese 
students,  at  home  and  abroad — Readiness  in  public 
speech — Powers  of  generalization  in  primitive  Japan — 
"  Ri  "  and  "  Ki,"  "  In  "  and  "  Yo  " — Japanese  use  of 
Chinese  generalized  philosophical  terms — Generalization 
and  the  social  order — Defective  explanation  of  peurile 
Oriental  science — Relation  to  the  mechanical  memory 
method  of  education — High  intellectuality  dependent  on 
social  order, 218 


XX.     PHILOSOPHICAL   ABILITY 


Do  Japanese  lack  philosophical  ability? — Some  opinions — 
Some  distinctions — Japanese  interest  in  metaphysical 
problems — Buddhist  and  Confucian  metaphysics — Aleta- 
physics  and  ethics — Japanese  students  of  Occidental  phi- 
losophy— A  personal  experience — "  The  little  philoso- 
pher " — A  Buddhist  priest — Rarity  of  original  philo- 
sophical ability  and  even  interest — Philosophical  ability 
and    the    social    order   in    the    West 

%  XXI.     IMAGINATION 

Some  criticisms  of  Japanese  mental  traits — Wide  range  of 
imaginative   activity — Some    salient    points — Unbalanced 


\ 


CONTENTS  7 

PAGE 

imaginative  development — Prosaic  matter-of-factness — 
Visionariness — Impractical  idealism — Illustrations — An 
evangelist — A  principal — Visionariness  in  Christian 
work — Visionariness  in  national  ambition — Imagination 
and  optimism — Mr.  Lowell's  opinion  criticised — Fancy 
and  imagination — Caricature — Imagination  and  imita- 
tion— Sociological  interpretation  of  visionariness — And 
of  prosaic  matter-of-factness — Communalism  and  the 
higher  mental  powers — Suppression  of  the  constructive 
imagination — Racial  intellectual  characteristics  are  so- 
cial   rather    than    inherent, 233 

XXII.     MORAL    IDEALS 

Loyalty  and  filial  piety  as  moral  ideals — Quotations  from  an 
ancient  moralist,  Muro  Kyuso — On  the  heavenly  origin 
of  moral  teaching — On  self-control— Knowledge  comes 
through  obedience — On  the  impurity  of  ancient  litera- 
ture— On  the  ideal  of  the  samurai  in  relation  to  trade — 
Old  Japan  combined  statute  and  ethical  law — "  The 
testament  of  lyeyasu  " — Ohashi's  condemnation  of  West- 
ern learning  for  its  impiety — Japanese  moral  ideals  were 
communal — Truthfulness  undeveloped — Relations  of 
samurai  to  tradesman  —  The  business  standards  are 
changing  with  the  social  order — Ancient  Occidental 
contempt  for  trade — Plato  and  Aristotle,  .        .        .    249 

XXIII.     MORAL    IDEALS    {Continued) 

The  social  position  of  woman — Valuation  of  the  individ- 
ual— Confucian  and  Buddhistic  teaching  in  regard  to 
concubinage  and  polygamy — Sociological  interpreta- 
tion— Japan  not  exceptional — Actual  morality  of  Old 
Japan — Modern  growth  of  immorality — Note  on  the 
"  Social  Evil  " — No  ancient  teaching  in  regard  to  mas- 
culine chastity — Mr.  Hearn's  mistaken  contention — ■ 
Filial  obedience  and  prostitution — How  could  the  social 
order  produce  two  different  moral  ideals? — The  new 
Civil  Code  on  marriage — Divorce — Statistics — Modern 
advance  of  woman — Significance  of  the  Imperial  Silver 
Wedding — The  Wedding  of  the  Prince  Imperial — 
Relation  of  Buddhism  and  Confucianism  to  moral 
ideals  and  practice — The  new  spirit  of  Buddhism — 
Christian  influence  on  Shinto ;  Tenri  Kyo — The  ancient 
moralists  confined  their  attention  to  the  rulers — The 
Imperial  Edict  in  regard  to  Moral  Education,        .        .    258 

XXIV.     MORAL   PRACTICE 

The  publicity  of  Japanese  life — Public  bathing— Personal  ex- 
perience at  a  hot-spring — Mr.  Hearn  on  privacy — Indi- 


8  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

vidualism  and  variation  from  the  moral  standard — 
Standards  advancing — Revenge — Modern  liberty  of 
travel — Increase  of  wealth — Increasing  luxury  and  vice — 
Increase  of  concubinage — Native  discussions — Statis- 
tics— Business  honesty — A  native  paper  quoted — Some 
experiences  with  Christians — Testimony  of  a  Japanese 
consul — Difference  of  gifts  to  Buddhist  and  to  Christian 
institutions — Christian  condemnation  of  Doshisha  mis- 
management— Misappropriation  of  trust  funds  in  the 
West — Business  honesty  and  the  social  order — Fitness 
of  Christianity  to  the  new  social  order — A  summary — 
Communal  virtues — Individual  Vices — The  authority  of 
the  moral  ideal — Moral  characteristics  are  not  inherent, 
but  social,  in  nature, 273 

XXV.  ARE  THE  JAPANESE  RELIGIOUS  ? 

Prof.  Pfleidercr's  view — Pcrcival  Lowell's  definition  of  re- 
ligion— Japanese  appearance  of  irreligion  due  to  many 
facts — Skeptical  attitude  of  Confucius  towards  the 
gods — Ready  acceptance  of  Western  agnosticism — Prof. 
Chamberlain's  assertion  that  the  Japanese  take  their  re- 
ligion lightly — Statements  concerning  religion  by  Messrs. 
Fukuzawa,  Kato,  and  Ito — Statements  of  Japanese  ir- 
religion are  not  to  be  lightly  accepted — Incompetence  of 
many  critics — We  must  study  all  the  religious  phenom- 
ena—Pilgrimages— Statistics — Mr.  Lowell's  criticism  of 
"peripatetic  picnic  parties" — Is  religion  necessarily 
gloomy? — God  and  Buddha  shelves  universal  in  Japan — 
Temples  and  shrines — Statistics, 2S6 

XXVI.  SOME  RELIGIOUS  PHENOMENA 

Stoical  training  conceals  religious  emotions — The  earnest- 
ness of  many  suppliants — Buddhistic  and  Shinto  prac- 
tice of  religious  ecstasy — The  revolt  from  Buddhism  a 
religious  movement — Muro  Kyu-so  quoted — ''  Heaven's 
Way  " — "  God's  omnipresence  " — Pre-Christian  teachers 
of  Christian  truth — Interpretation  of  modern  irreligious 
phenomena — Japanese  apparent  lack  of  reverence — Not 
an  inherent  racial  characteristic — Sketch  of  Japanese  re- 
ligious history  —  Shinto — Buddhism — Confucianism  — 
Christianity — Roman  Catholicism — Protestantism — Re- 
ligious characteristics  are  social,  not  essential  or  racial.    296 

XXVII.     SOME  RELIGIOUS  CONCEPTIONS 

Japruu'sc  conceptions  as  to  deity — The  number  and  relation 
of  the  gods  to  the  tmiverso — Did  the  Jnpanes-e  have  the 
monotheistic   conception  ? — Attractiveness   of   Christian 


CONTENTS  9 

PAGE 

monotfieism — Confucian  and  Buddhist  monism — Reli- 
gious conception  of  man — Conception  of  sin — Defective 
terminology  —  Relation  of  sin  to  salvation  —  "  Holy 
water " — Holy  towels  and  the  spread  of  disease — The 
slight  connection  between  physical  and  moral  pollution — 
W.  E.  Griffis  quoted — Exaggerated  cleanliness  of  the 
Japanese — Public  bathing  houses — Consciousness  of  sin 
in  the  sixteenth  century — A  recent  experience — Doctrine 
of  the  future  life — Salvation  from  fate — "  Ingwa  " — 
These  are  important  doctrines — "  Mei  "  (Heaven's  de- 
cree)— Japan  not  unique — Sociological  interpretations  of 
religious  characteristics, 310 

XXVIII.     SOME  RELIGIOUS  PRACTICES 

Loyalty  and  filial  piety  as  religious  phenomena — Gratitude 
as  a  religious  trait — Hearn  quoted — Unpleasant  ex- 
periences of  ingratitude — Modern  suppression  of  phal- 
licism — Brothels  and  prostitutes  at  popular  shrines — The 
failure  of  higher  ethnic  faiths  to  antagonize  the  lower — 
Suppression  of  phallicism  due  to  Western  opinion — The 
significance  of  this  suppression  to  sociological  theory — 
Religious  liberty — Some  history — Inconsistent  attitude 
of  the  Educational  Department — Virtual  establishment 
of  compulsory  state  religion — Review  and  summary — 
The  Japanese  ready  learners  of  foreign  religions— The 
significance  of  this  to  sociology — Japanese  future  religion 
is  to  be  Christianity, 322 

XXIX.     SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    NA- 
TIONAL  EVOLUTION 

Progress  is  from  smaller  to  larger  communities — Arrest  of 
development — The  necessity  of  individualism — The  rela- 
tion of  communal  to  individual  development — A  possible 
misunderstanding — The  problem  of  distribution — Per- 
sonality,   332 

XXX.     ARE  THE  JAPANESE  IMPERSONAL? 

Assertion  of  Oriental  impersonality  —  Quotations  from 
Percival  Lowell — Defective  and  contradictory  definitions 
— Arguments  for  impersonality  resting  on  mistaken 
interpretations  —  Children's  festivals  —  Occidental  and 
Oriental  method  of  counting  ages — Argument  for  imper- 
sonality from  Japanese  art — From  the  characteristics  of 
the  Japanese  family — The  bearing  of  divorce  on  this 
argument — Do  Japanese  "  fall  in  "love  "  ? — Suicide  and 
murder  for  love — Occidental  approval  and  Oriental  con- 
demnation of  "  falling  in  love  " — Sociological  significance 
of  divorce  and  of  "  falling  in  love,"  ....    344 


10  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

XXXI.    THE  JAPANESE  NOT  IMPERSONAL 

The  problem  stated — Definitions — Remarks  on  definitions — 
Characteristics  of  a  person — Impersonality  defined — A 
preliminary  summary  statement — Definitions  of  Com- 
munalism  and  Individualism  —  The  argument  for 
"  impersonality "  from  Japanese  politeness  —  Some 
difficulties  of  this  interpretation  —  The  sociological 
interpretation  of  politeness — The  significance  of  Japa- 
nese sensitiveness — Altruism  as  a  proof  of  impersonality 
— Japanese  selfishness  and  self-assertiveness — Distinc- 
tion between  communal  and  individualistic  altruism — 
Deficiency  of  personal  pronouns  as  a  proof  of  imperson- 
ality— A  possible  counter-argument — Substitutes  for  per- 
sonal pronouns — Many  personal  words  in  Japanese — 
Origin  of  pronouns,  personal  and  others — The  relation 
of  the  social  order  to  the  use  of  personal  pronouns — 
Japanese  conceive  Nationality  only  through  Personality 
— "Strong"  and  "weak"  personality — Strong  person- 
alities in  Japan — Feudalism  and  strong  personalities,      .     356 

XXXII.     IS   BUDDHISM   IMPERSONAL? 

Self-suppression  as  a  proof  of  impersonality — Self-suppres- 
s-ion  cannot  be  ascribed  to  a  primitive  people — Esoteric 
Buddhism  not  popular  —  Buddhism  emphasized  intro- 
spection and  self-consciousness — Mr.  Lowell  on  the 
teaching  of  Buddha — Consciousness  of  union  with  the 
Absolute  a  developed,  not  a  primitive,  trait — Buddhist 
self-suppression  proves  a  developed  self — Buddhist  self- 
salvation  and  Christian  salvation  by  faith — Buddhism 
does  not  develop  rounded  personality — Buddhism  attrib- 
utes no  worth  to  the  self — Buddhist  mercy  rests  on  the 
doctrine  of  transmigration,  not  on  the  inherent  worth  of 
man — Analysis  of  the  diverse  elements  in  the  asserted 
"  Impersonality  " — Why  Buddhism  attributed  no  value  to 
the  self — The  Infinite  Absolute  Abstraction — Buddhism 
not  impersonal  hut  abstract — Buddhist  doctrine  of  illu- 
sion— Popular  Buddhism  not  philosophical — Relation  of 
"  ingwa,"  Fate,  to  the  development  of  personality — Rela- 
tion of  belief  in  freedom  to  the  fact  of  freedom — Socio- 
logical consequences  of  Buddhist  doctrine.       .        .        .    377 

XXXIH.  TRACES  OF  PERSONALITY  IN 
SHINTOISM,  BUDDHISM,  AND  CON- 
FUCIANISM 

Human  illogicalness  providential — Some  devices  for  avoid- 
ing the  evils  of  logical  conclusions — Buddliistic  actual 
appeal  to  personal  self-activity— Practical  Confucianism 


CONTENTS  II 

PAGE 

an  antidote  to  Buddhist  poison — Confucian  ethics  pro- 
duced strong  persons — The  personal  conception  of  deity 
is  widespread — Shinto  gods  all  persons — Popular  Bud- 
dhist gods  are  personal — Confucian  "  Heaven  "  implies 
personality — The  idea  of  personality  not  wholly  wanting 
in  the  Orient — The  idea  of  divine  personality  not  diffi- 
cult to  impart  to  a  Japanese — A  conversation  with  a 
Buddhist  priest — Sketch  of  the  development  of  Japanese 
personality — Is  personality  inherent? — Intrinsic  and  phe- 
nomenal personality — Note  on  the  doctrine  of  the  per- 
sonality of  God, 389 


XXXIV.     THE  BUDDHIST  WORLD-VIEW 

Comparison  of  Buddhist,  Greek,  and  Christian  conceptions 
of  God — Nirvana — The  Buddhistic  Ultimate  Reality 
absolute  vacuity — Greek  affirmation  of  intelligence  in  the 
Ultimate  Reality — Christian  affirmation  of  Divine  Per- 
sonality— The  Buddhist  universe  is  partly  rational  and 
ethical — The  Greek  universe  is  partly  rational  and 
ethical — Corresponding  views  of  sin,  salvation,  change, 
and  history — Resulting  pessimism  and  optimism — Con- 
sequences to  the  respective  civilizations  and  their  social 
orders,  398 


XXXV.  COMMUNAL  AND  INDIVIDUAL 
ELEMENTS  IN  THE  EVOLUTION  OF 
JAPANESE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

Japanese  religious  life  has  been  predominantly  communal — 
Shinto  provided  the  sanctions  for  the  social  order — Re- 
cent abdication  of  Shinto  as  a  religion — Primitive 
Shinto  world  -  view  —  Shinto  and  modern  science  — 
Shinto  sanctions  for  the  modern  social  order — Bud- 
dhism is  individualistic — Lacks  social  ideals  and  sanc- 
tions— Hence  it  could  not  displace  Shinto — Shinto 
and  Buddhism  are  supplementary — Produced  a  period 
of  prosperity — The  defect  of  Buddhist  individualism — 
Imperfect  acceptance  of  Shinto — Effect  of  political  his- 
tory— Confucianism  restored  the  waning  communal 
sanctions — The  difference  between  Shinto  and  Confu- 
cian social  ideals  and  sanctions — The  difference  between 
Shinto  and  Confucian  world-views — Rejection  of  the 
Confucian  social  order — An  interpretation — The  failure 
of  Confucianism  to  become  a  religion — Western  inter- 
course re-established  Shinto  sanctions — Japan's  modern 
religious  problem — Difficulty  of  combining  individual 
and    communal     religious     elements— Christianity     has 


12  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

accomplished  it — Individualism  in  and  through  com- 
munalism — A  modern  expansion  of  communal  religion — 
Shared  by  Japan — Some  Japanese  recognize  the  need  of 
religion  for  Japan — Sociological  function  of  individual- 
istic religion  in  the  higher  human  evolution — Obstacle 
to  evolution  through  the  development  of  intellect — The 
Japanese  mind  is  outgrowing  its  old  religious  concep- 
tions— The  dependence  of  religious  phenomena  on  the 
ideas  dominating  society — Note  on  National  and  Uni- 
versal religions — Buddhism  not  properly  classified  as 
Universal — The  classification  of  religions,        .        .        .    404 


XXXVI.     WHAT    ARE   THE  ESSENTIAL 
CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

The  conclusion  reached  in  this  work — Contrary  to  the 
opinion  of  tourists,  residents,  and  many  sociologists — 
Professor  Le  Bon  quoted — Social  psychic  characteristics 
not  inherent — Evolution  and  involution — Advocates  of 
inherent  Oriental  traits  should  catalogue  those  traits — 
An  attempt  by  the  London  Daily  Mail — Is  the  East 
inherently  intuitive,  and  the  West  logical  ? — The  diffi- 
culty of  becoming  mutually  acquainted — The  secret  of 
genuine  acquaintance — Is  the  East  inherently  meditative 
and  the  West  active? — Oriental  unity  and  characteristics 
are  social,  not  inherent — Isolated  evolution  is  divergent 
— Mutual  influence  of  the  East  and  the  West — Summary 
statement, 


XXXVII.     GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS 

Review  of  our  course  of  thought — Purpose  of  this  chapter — 
The  problem  studied  in  this  work — Interrelation  of 
social  and  psychic  phenomena — ^^Heredity  defined  and 
analyzed — Evolution  defined — Exact  definition  of  our 
question,  and  our  reply — What  would  be  an  adequate 
disproof  of  our  position — Reasons  for  limiting  the  dis- 
cussion to  advanced  races — Divergent  evolution  depend- 
ent on  segregation — Distinction  between  racial  and  so- 
cial unity — Relation  of  the  individual  psychic  character 
to  the  social  order — "  Race  soul  "  a  convenient  fiction — 
Psychic  function  produces  psychic  organis'm — Causes 
and  nature  of  plasticity  and  fixity  of  society — Relation 
of  incarnate  ideas  to  character  and  destiny — Valueless- 
ness  of  "  floating  "  ideas — Progress  is  at  once  communal 
and  individual — Personality  is  its  cause,  aim,  and  cri- 
terion— Progress  in  personality  is  ethico-religious  — 
Japanese  social  and  psychic  evolution  not  exceptional,    .    43S 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  tragedy  enacted  in  China  during  the  closing 
year  of  the  nineteenth  century  marks  an  epoch  in 
the  history  of  China  and  of  the  world.  Two 
world-views,  two  types  of  civilization  met  in  deadly 
conflict,  and  the  inherent  weakness  of  isolated,  belated, 
superstitious  and  corrupt  paganism  was  revealed. 
Moreover,  during  this,  China's  crisis,  Japan  for  the 
first  time  stepped  out  upon  the  world's  stage  of  political 
and  military  activity.  She  was  recognized  as  a  civilized 
nation,  worthy  to  share  with  the  great  nations  of  the 
earth  the  responsibility  of  ruling  the  lawless  and  back- 
ward races. 

The  correctness  of  any  interpretation  as  to  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  conflict  between  the  opposing  civiliza- 
tions turns,  ultimately,  on  the  question  as  to  what  is 
the  real  nature  of  man  and  of  society.  If  it  be  true,  as 
maintained  by  Prof.  Le  Bon  and  his  school,  that  the 
mental  and  moral  character  of  a  people  is  as  fixed  as 
its  physiological  characteristics,  then  the  conflict  in 
China  is  at  bottom  a  conflict  of  races,  not  of  civiliza- 
tions. 

The  inadequacy  of  the  physiological  theory  of  na- 
tional character  may  be  seen  almost  at  a  glance  by  a 
look  at  Japan.  Were  an  Oriental  necessarily  and  un- 
changeably Oriental,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
Japan  to  have  come  into  such  close  and  sympathetic 
touch  with  the  West. 

The  conflict  of  the  East  with  the  West,  however,  is 
not  an  inherent  and  unending  conflict,  because  it  is  not 
racial,  but  civilizational.  It  is  a  conflict  of  world-views 
and  systems  of  thought  and  life.  It  is  a  conflict  of 
heathen  and  Christian  civilizations.  And  the  conflict 
will  come  to  an  end  as  soon  as,  and  in  proportion  as, 
China  awakes  from  her  blindness  and  besfins  to  build 


14  INTRODUCTION 

her  national  temple  on  the  bedrock  of  universal 
truth  and  righteousness.  The  conflict  is  practically 
over  in  Japan  because  she  has  done  this.  In  loyallv  ac- 
cepting science,  popular  education,  and  the  rights  of 
every  individual  to  equal  protection  by  the  government, 
Japan  has  accepted  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  civ- 
ilization held  in  the  West,  and  has  thus  become  an  in- 
tegral part  of  Christendom,  a  fact  of  world-wide  signifi- 
cance. It  proves  that  the  most  important  differences 
now  separating  the  great  races  of  men  are  civiliza- 
tional,  not  physiological.  It  also  proves  that  European, 
American,  and  Oriental  peoples  may  be  possessed  by 
the  same  great  ideals  of  life  and  principles  of  action, 
enabling  them  to  co-operate  as  nations  in  great  move- 
ments to  their  mutual  advantage. 

While  even  we  of  the  West  may  be  long  in  learning 
the  full  significance  of  what  has  been  and  still  is  taking 
place  in  Japan  and  more  conspicuously  just  now,  be- 
cause more  tragically,  in  China,  one  thing  is  clear: 
steam  and  electricity  have  abolished  forever  the  old 
isolation  of  the  nations. 

Separated  branches  of  the  human  race  that  for  thou- 
sands of  years  have  been  undergoing  divergent  evolu- 
tion, producing  radically  different  languages,  customs, 
civilizations,  systems  of  thought  and  world-views,  and 
have  resulted  even  in  marked  physiological  and  psy- 
chological differences,  are  now  being  brought  into  close 
contact  and  inevitable  conflict.  But  at  bottom  it  is  a 
conflict  of  ideas,  not  of  races.  The  age  of  isolation  and 
divergent  evolution  is  passing  away,  and  that  of  inter- 
national association  and  convergent  social  evolution 
has  begun.  Those  races  and  nations  that  refuse  to 
recognize  the  new  social  order,  and  oppose  the  cosmic 
process  and  its  forces,  will  surely  be  pushed  to  the  wall 
and  cease  to  exist  as  independent  nations,  just  as,  in 
ancient  times,  the  tribes  that  refused  to  unite  with 
neighboring  tribes  were  finally  subjugated  by  those  that 
did  so  unite. 

Universal  economic,  political,  intellectual,  moral,  and 
religious  intercourse  is  the  characteristic  of  the  new 
aeon/oh  which  wc  arc  entering.     What  arc  to  be  the 


INTRODUCTION  15 

final  consequences  of  this  wide  intercourse?  Can  a 
people  change  its  character?  Can  a  nation  fully  pos- 
sessed by  one  type  of  civilization  reject  it,  and  adopt 
one  radically  different?  Do  races  have  "souls"  which 
are  fixed  and  incapable  of  radical  transformations? 
What  has  taken  place  in  Japan,  a  profound,  or  only  a 
superficial  change  in  psychical  character?  Are  the  des- 
tinies of  the  Oriental  races  already  unalterably  de- 
termined? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  have  already  been 
suggested  in  the  preceding  paragraphs,  in  regard  to 
what  has  already  taken  place  in  Japan.  But  we  may  add 
that  that  answer  really  turns  on  our  conception  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  characteristics  separating  the  East 
from  the  West.  In  proportion  as  national  character  is 
reckoned  to  be  biological,  will  it  be  considered  fixed 
and  the  national  destiny  predetermined.  In  proportion 
as  it  is  reckoned  to  be  sociological,  will  it  be  considered 
alterable  and  the  national  destiny  subject  to  new  social 
forces.  Now  that  the  intercourse  of  widely  different 
races  has  begun  on  a  scale  never  before  witnessed,  it 
is  highly  important  for  us  to  know  its  probable  conse- 
quences. For  this  we  need  to  gain  a  clear  idea  of  the 
nature  both  of  the  individual  man  and  of  society,  of 
the  relation  of  the  social  order  to  individual  and  to  race 
character,  and  of  the  law  regulating  and  the  forces  pro- 
ducing social  evolution.  Only  thus  can  we  forecast 
the  probable  course  and  consequences  of  the  free  social 
intercourse  of  widely  divergent  races. 

It  is  the  belief  of  the  writer  that  few  countries  afford 
so  clear  an  illustration  of  the  principles  involved  in  social 
evolution  as  Japan.  Her  development  has  been  so  rapid 
and  so  recent  that  some  principles  have  become  mani-' 
fest  that  otherwise  might  easily  have  escaped  notice. 
The  importance  of  understanding  Japan,  because  of  the 
light  her  recent  transformations  throw  on  the  subject 
of  social  evolution  and  of  national  character  and  also 
because  of  the  conspicuous  role  to  which  she  is  destined 
as  the  natural  leader  of  the  Oriental  races  in  their  adop- 
tion of  Occidental  modes  of  life  and  thought,  justifies  a 
careful  study  of  Japanese  character.     He  who  really 


i6  INTRODUCTION 

understands  Japan,  has  gained  the  magic  key  for  un- 
locking the  social  mysteries  of  China  and  the  entire 
East.  But  the  Japanese  people,  with  their  institutions 
and  their  various  characteristics,  merit  careful  study 
also  for  their  own  sakes.  For  the  Japanese  constitute 
an  exceedingly  interesting  and  even  a  unique  branch  of 
the  human  race.  Japan  is  neither  a  purgatory,  as 
some  would  have  it,  nor  a  paradise,  as  others  maintain, 
but  a  land  full  of  individuals  in  an  interesting  stage  of 
social  evolution. 

Current  opinions  concerning  Japan,  however,  are  as 
curious  as  they  are  contradictory.  Sir  Edwin  Arnold 
says  that  the  Japanese  "  Have  the  nature  rather  of  birds 
or  butterflies  than  of  ordinary  human  beings."  _  Says 
Mr.  A.  M.  Knapp:  "Japan  is  the  one  country  in  the 
world  which  does  not  disappoint.  .  .  It  is  un- 
questionably the  unique  nation  of  the  globe,  the  land  of 
dream  and  enchantment,  the  land  which  could  hardly 
differ  more  from  our  own,  were  it  located  in  another 
planet,  its  people  not  of  this  world."  An  "  old  resi- 
dent," however,  calls  it  "  the  land  of  disappointments." 
Few  phenomena  are  more  curious  than  the  readiness 
with  which  a  tourist  or  professional  journalist,  after  a 
few  days  or  weeks  of  sight-seeing  and  interviewing, 
makes  up  his  mind  in  regard  to  the  character  of  the  peo- 
ple, unless  it  be  the  way  in  which  certain  others, 
who  have  resided  in  this  land  for  a  number  of 
years,  continue  to  live  in  their  own  dreamland.  These 
two  classes  of  writers  have  been  the  chief  contributors 
of  material  for  the  omnivorous  readers  of  the  West. 
It  appears  to  not  a  few  who  have  lived  many  years  in 
this  Far  Eastern  land,  that  the  public  has  been  fed  with 
the  dreams  of  poets  or  the  snap-judgments  of  tourists 
instead  of  witli  the  facts  of  actual  experience.  A  recent 
editorial  article  in  the  Japan  Mail,  than  whose  editor 
few  men  have  had  a  wider  acquaintance  with  the  Japa- 
nese people  or  language,  contains  the  following  para- 
graph: 

"  In  the  case  of  such  writers  as  Sir  Edwin  Arnold  and 
Mr.  Lafcadio  Ilearn  it  is  quite  apparent  that  the  logical 


INTRODUCTION  17 

faculty  is  in  abeyance.  Imagination  reigns  supreme. 
As  poetic  flights  or  outbursts,  the  works  of  these 
authors  on  Japan  are  dehghtful  reading.  But  no  one 
who  has  studied  the  Japanese  in  a  deeper  manner,  by 
more  intimate  daily  intercourse  with  all  classes  of  the 
people  than  either  of  these  writers  pretends  to  have  had, 
can  possibly  regard  a  large  part  of  their  description  as 
anything  more  than  pleasing  fancy.  Both  have  given 
rein  to  the  poetic  fancy  and  thus  have,  from  a  purely 
literary  point  of  view,  scored  a  success  granted  to  few. 
.  .  But  as  exponents  of  Japanese  life  and  thought  they 
are  unreliable.  .  .  They  have  given  form  and  beauty  to 
much  that  never  existed  except  in  vague  outline  or  in 
undeveloped  germs  in  the  Japanese  mind.  In  doing  this 
they  have  unavoidably  been  guilty  of  misrepresentation. 
.  .  The  Japanese  nation  of  Arnold  and  Hearn  is  not 
the  nation  we  have  known  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
but  a  purely  ideal  one  manufactured  out  of  the  author's 
brains.  It  is  high  time  that  this  was  pointed  out.  For 
while  such  works  please  a  certain  section  of  the  English 
public,  they  do  a  great  deal  of  harm  among  a  section 
of  the  Japanese  public,  as  could  be  easily  shown  in  de- 
tail, did  space  allow." — Japan  Mail,  May  7,  i8p8. 

But  even  more  harmful  to  the  reading  public  of  Eng- 
land and  America  are  the  hastily  formed  yet,  neverthe- 
less, widely  published  opinions  of  tourists  and  news- 
paper correspondents.  Could  such  writers  realize  the 
inevitable  limitations  under  which  they  see  and  try  to 
generalize,  the  world  would  be  spared  many  crudities 
and  exaggerations,  not  to  say  positive  errors.  The  im- 
pression so  common  to-day  that  Japan's  recent  devel- 
opments are  anomalous,  even  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
national  growth,  is  chiefly  due  to  the  superficial  writ- 
ings of  hasty  observers.  Few  of  those  who  have  dilated 
ecstatically  on  her  recent  growth  have  understood  either 
the  history  or  the  genius  of  her  people. 

"To  mention  but  one  among  many  examples,"  says 
Prof.  Chamberlain,  "  the  ingenious  Traveling  Commis- 
sioner of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  Mr,  Henry  Norman, 


i8  INTRODUCTION 

in  his  lively  letters  on  Japan  published  nine  or  ten  years 
ago,  tells  the  story  of  Japanese  education  under  the 
fetching  title  of  'A  Nation  at  School';  but  the  impres- 
sion left  is  that  they  have  been  their  own  schoolmasters. 
In  another  letter  on  '  Japan  in  Arms,'  he  discourses 
concerning  *  The  Japanese  Military  Re-organizers,'  '  The 
Yokosuka  dockyard,'  and  other  matters,  but  omits  to 
mention  that  the  reorganizers  were  Frenchmen,  and 
that  the  Yokosuka  dockyard  was  also  a  French  crea- 
tion. Similarly,  when  treating  of  the  development  of 
the  Japanese  newspaper,  he  ignores  the  fact  that  it  owed 
its  origin  to  an  Englishman,  which  surely,  to  a  man 
whose  object  was  reality,  should  have  seemed  an  object^ 
worth  recording.  These  letters,  so  full  and  apparently 
so  frank,  really  so  deceptive,  are,  as  we  have  said,  but 
one  instance  among  many  of  the  way  in  which  popular 
writers  on  Japan  travesty  history  by  ignoring  the  part 
which  foreigners  have  played.  Tlie  reasons  for  this  are 
not  far  to  seek.  A  wonderful  tale  will  please  folks  at  a 
distance  all  the  better  if  made  more  wonderful  still. 
Japanese  progress,  traced  to  its  causes  and  explained 
by  references  to  the  means  employed,  is  not  nearly  such 
fascinating  reading  as  when  represented  in  the  guise  of 
a  fairy  creation,  sprung  from  nothing,  like  Aladdin's 
palace." — "  Things  Japanese,''  p.  ii6. 

But  inter-racial  misunderstanding  is  not,  after  all, 
so  very  strange.  Few  things  are  more  difficult  than  to 
accommodate  one's  self  in  speech,  in  methods  of  life,  and 
even  in  thought,  to  an  alien  people;  so  identifying  one's 
deepest  interest  with  thedrs  as  really  to  understand 
them.  The  minds  of  most  men  are  so  possessed  by 
notions  acquired  in  childhood  and  youth  as  to  be  unable 
to  see  even  the  plainest  facts  at  variance  with  those 
notions.  He  who  comes  to  Japan  possessed  with  the 
idea  that  it  is  a  dreamland  and  that  its  old  social  order 
was  free  from  defects,  is  blind  to  any  important  facts 
invalidating  that  conception ;  while  he  who  is  persuaded 
that  Japan,  being  Oriental,  is  necessarily  pagan  at 
heart,  however  civilized  in  form,  cannot  easily  be  per- 
suaded that  there  is  anything  praiseworthy  in  her  old 


INTRODUCTION  19 

civilization,  in  her  moral  or  religious  life,  or  in  any  of 
her  customs. 

If  France  fails  in  important  respects  to  understand 
England;  and  England,  Germany;  and  Germany,  its 
neighbors;  if  even  England  and  America  can  so  misun- 
derstand one  another  as  to  be  on  the  verge  of  war  over 
the  boundary  dispute  of  an  alien  country,  what  hope  is 
there  that  the  Occident  shall  understand  the  Orient,  or 
the  Orient  the  Occident? 

Though  the  difficulty  seems  insurmountable,  I  am 
persuaded  that  the  most  fruitful  cause  of  racial  misun- 
derstandings and  of  defective  descriptions  both  of  the 
West  by  Orientals,  and  of  the  East  by  Occidentals,  is  a 
well-nigh  universal  misconception  as  to  the  nature  of 
man,  and  of  society,  and  consequently  of  the  laws  de- 
termining their  development.  In  the  East  this  error 
arises  from  and  rests  upon  its  polytheism,  and  the  ac- 
companying theories  of  special  national  creation  and 
peculiar  national  sanctity.  On  these  grounds  alien 
races  are  pronounced  necessarily  inferior.  China's 
scorn  for  foreigners  is  due  to  these  ideas. 

Although  this  pagan  notion  has  been  theoretically 
abandoned  in  the  West,  it  still  dominates  the  thought 
not  only  of  the  multitudes,  but  also  of  many  who  pride 
themselves  on  their  high  education  and  liberal  senti- 
ments. They  bring  to  the  support  of  their  national  or 
racial  pride  such  modern  sociological  theories  as  lend 
themselves  to  this  view.  Evolution  and  the  survival  of 
the  fittest,  degeneration  and  the  arrest  of  development, 
are  appealed  to  as  justifying  the  arrogance  and  domi- 
neering spirit  of  Western  nations. 

But  the  most  subtle  and  scholarly  doctrine  appealed 
to  in  support  of  national  pride  is  the  biological  concep- 
tion of  society.  Popular  writers  assume  that  society  is 
a  biological  organism  and  that  the  laws  of  its  evolution 
are  therefore  biological.  This  assumption  is  not  strange, 
for  until  recent  times  the  most  advanced  professional 
sociologists  have  been  dominated  by  the  same  mis- 
conception. Spencer,  for  example,  '  makes  sociology 
a  branch  of  biology.  More  recent  sociological 
writers,    however,    such    as    Professors    Giddings    and 


20  INTRODUCTION 

Fairbanks,  have  taken  special  pains  to  assert  the 
essentially  physic  character  of  society ;  they  reject 
the  biological  conception,  as  inadequate  to  express 
the  real  nature  of  society.  The  biological  conception, 
they  insist,  is  nothing  more  than  a  comparison,  useful 
for  bringing  out  certain  features  of  the  social 
life  and  structure,  but  harmful  if  understood  as  their 
full  statement.  The  laws  of  psychic  activity  and  de- 
velo])ment  differ  as  widely  from  those  of  biologic 
activity  and  development  as  these  latter  do  from  those 
that  hold  in  the  chemical  world.  If  the  laws  which  reg- 
ulate psychic  development  and  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion were  understood  by  popular  writers  on  Japan,  and 
if  the  recent  progress  of  Japan  had  been  stated  in  the 
terms  of  these  laws,  there  would  not  have  been  so  much 
mystification  in  the  West  in  regard  to  this  matter  as 
there  evidently  has  been.  Japan  would  not  have  ap- 
peared to  have  "jumped  out  of  her  skin,"  or  suddenly 
to  have  escaped  from  the  heredity  of  her  past  millen- 
niums of  development.  This  wide  misunderstanding  of 
Japan,  then,  is  not  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  "  Japanese 
progress,  traced  to  its  causes  and  explained  by  reference 
to  the  means  employed,  is  not  nearly  such  fascinating 
reading  as  when  represented  in  the  guise  of  a  fairy  crea- 
tion," but  it  is  also  due  to  the  still  current  popular  view 
that  the  social  organism  is  biological,  and  subject  there- 
fore to  the  laws  of  biological  evolution.  On  this  as- 
sumption, some  hold  that  the  progress  of  Japan,  how- 
ever it  may  appear,  is  really  superficial.  v>hile  others 
represent  it  as  somehow  having  evaded  the  laws  regu- 
lating the  development  of  other  races.  A  nation's  char- 
acter and  characteristics  are  conceived  to  be  the  prod- 
uct of  brain-structure;  these  can  change  only  as  brain 
structure  changes.  Brain  is  held  to  determine  civiliza- 
tion, rather  than  civilization  brain.  Hampered  by  this 
defective  view,  popular  writers  inevitably  describe 
Japan  to  the  West  in  terms  that  necessarily  misrepre- 
sent her,  and  that  at  the  same  tinu'  pander  to  Occitlental 
pride  and  prejudice. 

lUit  tliis  misunderstanding  of  Japan  reveals  an  ecjually 
profound    misunderstanding    in    regard    to    ourselves. 


INTRODUCTION  21 

Occidental  peoples  are  supposed  to  be  what  they  are 
in  civilization  and  to  have  reached  their  high  attain- 
ments in  theoretical  and  applied  science,  in  philosophy 
and  in  practical  politics,  because  of  their  unique  brain- 
structures,  brains  secured  through  millenniums  of  bio- 
logical evolution.  The  following  statement  may  seem 
to  be  rank  heresy  to  the  average  sociologist,  but  my 
studies  have  led  me  to  believe  that  the  main  dififerences 
between  the  great  races  of  mankind  to-day  are  not  due 
to  biological,  but  to  social  conditions;  they  are  not 
physico-psychological  differences,  but  only  socio-psy- 
chological  differences.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  what  he  is 
because  of  his  social  heredity,  and  the  Chinaman  is  what 
he  is  because  of  his  social  heredity.  The  profound  dif- 
ference between  social  and  physiological  heredity  and  , 
evolution  is  unappreciated  except  by  a  few  of  the  most  I 
recent  sociological  writers.  The  part  that  association,  / 
social  segregation,  and  social  heredity  take  in  the  main- 
tenance, not  only  of  once  developed  languages  and  civi- 
lizations, but  even  in  their  genesis,  has  been  generally 
overlooked. 

But  a  still  more  important  factor  in  the  determination 
of  social  and  psychic  evolution,  generally  unrecognized 
by  sociologists,  is  the  nature  and  function  of  person- 
ality. Although  in  recent  years  it  has  been  occasionally 
mentioned  by  several  eminent  writers,  personality  as  a 
principle  has  not  been  made  the  core  of  any  system  of 
sociology.  In  my  judgment,  however,  this  is  the  dis- 
tinctive characteristic  of  human  evolution  and  of  human 
association,  and  it  should  accordingly  be  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  social  science.  Many  writers  on 
the  East  have  emphasized  what  they  call  its  "  imper- 
sonal "  characteristics.  So  important  is  this  subject 
that  I  have  considered  it  at  length  in  the  body  of  this 
work. 

Sociological  phenomena  cannot  be  fully  expressed  by 
any  combination  of  exclusively  physical,  biological,  and 
psychic  terms,  for  the  significant  element  of  man 
and  of  society  consists  of  something  more  than  these — 
namely,  personality.  It  is  this  that  differentiates  human 
from  animal  evolution.     The  unit  of  human  sociology 


22  INTRODUCTION 

is  a  self-conscious,  self-dctcrminative  being.  The 
causative  factor  in  the  social  evolution  of  man  is  his 
personality.  The  goal  of  that  evolution  is  developed 
personality.  Personality  is  thus  at  once  the  cause  and 
the  end  of  social  progress.  The  conditions  which  aflfect 
or  determine  progress  are  those  which  afifect  or  deter- 
mine personality. 

The  biological  evolution  of  man  from  the  animal  has 
been,  it  is  true,  frankly  assumed  in  this  work.  No  at- 
tempt is  made  to  justify  this  assumption.  Let  not  the 
reader  infer,  however,  that  the  writer  similarly 
assumes  the  adequacy  of  the  so-called  naturalistic  or 
evolutionary  origin  of  ethics,  of  religion,  or  even  of 
social  progress.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  Darwin, 
Wallace,  Le  Conte,  or  any  exponent  of  biological  evolu- 
tion has  yet  given  a  complete  statement  of  the  factors 
of  the  physiological  evolution  of  man.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  ethical,  religious,  and  social  writers  who 
have  striven  to  account  for  the  higher  evolution  of  man, 
by  appealing  to  factors  exclusively  parallel  to  those 
which haveproduced  the  physiological  evolution  of  man, 
have  conspicuously  failed.  However  much  we  may  find 
to  praise  in  the  social  interpretations  of  such  eminent 
writers  as  Comte,  Spencer,  Ward,  Fiske,  Giddings, 
Kidd,  Southerland,  or  even  Drummond,  there  still  re- 
mains the  necessity  of  a  fuller  consideration  of  the 
moral  and  religious  evolution  of  man.  The  higher 
evolution  of  man  cannot  be  adequately  expressed  or 
even  understood  in  any  terms  lower  than  those  of  per- 
sonality. 


EVOLUTION    OF    THE 
JAPANESE 

I 

PRELIMINARY  CONSIDERATIONS 

SAID  a  well  educated  and  widely  read  Englishman 
to  the  writer  while  in  Oxford,  "  Can  you  explain  to 
me  how  it  is  that  the  Japanese  have  succeeded  in 
jumping  out  of  their  skins?"  And  an  equally  thoughtful 
American,  speaking  about  the  recent  strides  in  civiliza- 
tion made  by  Japan,  urged  that  this  progress  could  not 
be  real  and  genuine.  "  How  can  such  a  mushroom- 
growth,  necessarily  without  deep  roots  in  the  past,  be 
real  and  strong  and  permanent?  How  can  it  escape 
being  chiefly  superficial?"  These  two  men  are  typical 
of  much  of  the  thought  of  the  West  in  regard  to  Japan. 
Seldom,  _perhaps  never,  has  the  civilized  world  so 
suddenly  and  completely  reversed  an  estimate  of  a 
nation  as  it  has  that  with  reference  to  Japan.  Before 
the  recent  war,  to  the  majority  even  of  fairly  educated 
men,  Japan  was  little  more  than  a  name  for  a  few  small 
islands  somewhere  near  China,  whose  people  were 
peculiar  and  interesting.  To-day  there  is  probably  not 
a  man,  or  woman,  or  child  attending  school  in  any  part 
of  the  civilized  world,  who  does  not  know  the  main  facts 
about  the  recent  war:  how  the  small  country  and  the 
men  of  small  stature,  sarcastically  described  by  their 
foes  as  "  Wojen,"  pygmy,  attacked  the  army  and  navy 
of  a  country  ten  times  their  size. 

Such  a  universal  change  of  opinion  regarding  a 
nation,  especially  regarding  one  so  remote  from  the 
centers  of  Western  civilization  as  Japan,  could  not  have 
taken    place   in    any    previous    generation.    The    tele- 


24  EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

graph,  the  daily  paper,  the  intelhgent  reporters  and 
writers  of  books  and  magazine  articles,  the  rapid  steam 
travel  and  the  many  travelers — all  these  have  made  pos- 
sible this  sudden  actjuisition  of  knowledge  and  startling 
reversal  of  opinion. 

There  is  reason,  however,  to  think  that  much  mis- 
apprehension and  real  ignorance  still  exists  about  Japan 
and  her  leap  into  power  and  world-wide  prestige.  Many 
seem  to  think  that  Japan  has  entered  on  her  new  career 
through  the  abandonment  of  her  old  civilization  and  the 
adoption  of  one  from  the  West — that  the  victories  on 
sea  and  land,  in  Korea,  at  Port  Arthur,  and  a  Wei-hai- 
wei,  and  more  recently  at  Tientsin  and  Pekin,  were 
solely  due  to  her  Westernized  navy  and  army.  Such 
persons  freely  admit  that  this  process  of  Westernization 
had  been  going  on  for  many  years  more  rapidly  than 
the  world  at  large  knew,  and  that  consequently  the 
reputation  of  Japan  before  the  war  was  not  such  as  cor- 
responded with  her  actual  attainments.  But  they 
assume  that  there  was  nothing  of  importance  in  the  old 
civilization;  that  it  was  little  superior  to  organized  bar- 
barism. 

These  people  conceive  of  the  change  which  has  taken 
place  in  Japan  during  the  past  thirty  years  as  a  revolu- 
tion, not  as  an  evolution ;  as  an  abandonment  of  the  old, 
and  an  adoption  of  the  new,  civilization.  They  con- 
ceive the  old  tree  of  civilization  to  have  been  cut  down 
and  cast  into  the  fire,  and  a  new  tree  to  have  been  im- 
ported from  the  West  and  planted  in  Japanese  soil. 
New  Japan  is,  from  this  view-point,  the  new  tree. 

Not  many  months  ago  I  heard  of  a  wealthy  family  in 
Kyoto  which  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  so-called  im- 
provements imported  from  abroad,  and  which  conse- 
quently persisted  in  using  the  instruments  of  the  older 
civilization.  Even  such  a  convenience  as  the  kerosene 
lamp,  now  universally  adopted  throughout  the  land  of 
the  Rising  Sun,  this  family  refused  to  admit  into  its 
home,  preferring  the  old-style  andiron  with  its  vegetable 
oil,  dim  light,  and  flickering  flame.  Recently,  however, 
an  electric-light  comi)any  was  organized  in  that  city, 
and  this  brilliant  illuminant  was  hitroduccd    not   only 


PRELIMINARY   CONSIDERATIONS         25 

into  the  streets  and  stores,  but  into  many  private 
houses.  Shortly  after  its  introduction,  the  family  was 
converted  to  the  superiority  of  the  new  method  of  illumi- 
nation, and  passed  at  one  leap  from  the  old-style  lantern 
to  the  latest  product  of  the  nineteenth  century.  This 
incident  is  considered  typical  of  the  transformations 
characteristic  of  modern  Japan.  It  is  supposed  that  New 
Japan  is  in  no  proper  sense  the  legitimate  product 
through  evolution  of  Old  Japan. 

In  important  ways,  therefore,  Japan  seems  to  be  con- 
tradicting our  theories  of  national  growth.  We  have 
thought  that  no  "  heathen  "  nation  could  possibly  gain, 
much  less  wield,  unaided  by  Westerners,  the  forces  of 
civilized  Christendom.  We  have  likewise  held  that 
national  growth  is  a  slow  process,  a  gradual  evolution, 
extending  over  scores  and  centuries  of  years.  In  both 
respects  our  theories  seem  to  be  at  fault.  This  "  little 
nation  of  little  people,"  which  we  have  been  so  ready  to 
condemn  as  "  heathen  "  and  "  uncivilized,"  and  thus  to 
despise,  or  to  ignore,  has  in  a  single  generation  leaped 
into  the  forefront  of  the  world's  attention. 

Are  our  theories  wrong?  Is  Japan  an  exception? 
Are  our  facts  correct?  We  instinctively  feel  that  some- 
thing is  at  fault.  We  are  not  satisfied  with  the  usual 
explanation  of  the  recent  history  of  Japan.  We  are 
perhaps  ready  to  concede  that  "  the  rejection  of  the  old 
and  the  adoption  of  Western  civilization  "  is  the  best 
statement  whereby  to  account  for  the  riew  power  of 
Japan  and  her  new  position  among  the  nations,  but 
when  we  stop  to  think,  we  ask  whether  we  have  thus 
explained  that  for  which  we  are  seeking  an  explanation? 
Do  not  the  questions  still  remain — Why  did  the  Japa- 
nese so  suddenly  abandon  Oriental  for  Occidental  civili- 
zation? And  what  mental  and  other  traits  enabled  a 
people  who,  according  to  the  supposition,  were  far  from 
civilized,  so  suddenly  to  grasp  and  wield  a  civilization 
quite  alien  in  character  and  superior  to  their  own;  a 
civilization  ripened  after  millenniums  of  development  of 
the  Aryan  race?  And  how  far,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  has 
this  assimilation  gone?  Not  until  these  questions  are 
really  answered  has  the  explanation  been  found.     So 


26         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

that,  after  all,  the  prime  cause  which  we  must  seek  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  external  environment,  but  rather 
in  the  internal  endowment. 

An  effort  to  understand  the  ancient  history  of  Japan 
encounters  the  same  problem  as  that  raised  by  her 
modern  history.  What  mental  characteristics  led  the 
Japanese  a  thousand  years  ago  so  to  absorb  the  Chinese 
civilization,  philosophy,  and  language  that  their  own  suf- 
fered a  permanent  arrest?  What  religious  traits  led 
them  so  to  take  on  a  religion  from  China  and  India  that 
their  own  native  religion  never  passed  beyond  the  most 
primitive  development,  either  in  doctrine,  in  ethics,  in 
ritual,  or  in  organization?  On  the  other  hand,  what 
mental  characteristics  enabled  them  to  preserve  their 
national  independence  and  so  to  modify  everything 
brought  from  abroad,  from  the  words  of  the  new  lan- 
guage to  the  philosophy  of  the  new  religions,  that 
Japanese  civilization,  language,  and  religion  are  mark- 
edly distinct  from  the  Chinese?  Why  is  it  that,  though 
the  Japanese  so  fell  under  the  bondage  of  the  Chinese 
language  as  permanently  to  enslave  and  dwarf  their  own 
beautiful  tongue,  expressing  the  dominant  thought  of 
every  sentence  with  characters  (ideographs)  borrowed 
from  China,  yet  at  the  same  time  so  transformed  what 
they  borrowed  that  no  Chinaman  can  read  and  under- 
stand a  Japanese  book  or  newspaper? 

The  same  questions  recur  at  this  new  period  of  Japan's 
national  life.  Why  has  she  so  easily  turned  from  the 
customs  of  centuries?  What  are  the  mental  traits  that 
have  made  her  respond  so  dififerently  from  her  neighbor 
to  the  environment  of  the  nineteenth-century  civilization 
of  the  West  Why  is  it  that  Japan  has  sent  thousands 
of  her  students  to  these  Western  lands  to  see  and  stuily 
and  bring  back  all  that  is  good  in  them,  while  China  has 
remained  in  stolid  self-satisfaction,  seeing  nothing  good 
in  the  West  and  its  ways?  To  affirm  that  the  differ- 
ence is  due  to  the  environment  alone  is  impos- 
sible, for  the  environment  seems  to  be  essentially 
the  same.  This  difference  of  attitude  and  action 
must  be  traced,  it  would  seem,  to  differences  of 
mental     and     temperamental     characteristics.      Those 


PRELIMINARY   CONSIDERATIONS         27 \ 

who  seek  to  understand  the  secret  of  Japan's 
newly  won  power  and  reputation  by  looking  sim- 
ply at  her  newly  acquired  forms  of  government,  her 
reconstructed  national  social  structure,  her  recently  con- 
structed roads  and  railroads,  telegraphs,  representative 
government,  etc.,  and  especially  at  her  army  and  navy 
organized  on  European  models  and  armed  with  Eu- 
ropean weapons,  are  not  unlike  those  who  would  dis- 
cover the  secret  of  human  life  by  the  study  of  anatomy. 

This  external  view  and  this  method  of  interpretation 
are,  therefore,  fundamentally  erroneous.  Never,  per- 
haps, has  the  progress  of  a  nation  been  so  manifestly  an 
evolution  as  distinguished  from  a  revolution.  _No 
foreign  conquerors  have  come  in  with  their  armies, 
crushing  down  the  old  and  building  up  a  new  civiliza- 
tion. No  magician's  wand  has  been  waved  over  the 
land  to  make  the  people  forget  the  traditions  of  a^  thou- 
sand years  and  fall  in  with  those  of  the  new  regime. 
No  rite  or  incantation  has  been  performed  to  charm  the 
marvelous  tree  of  civilization  and  cause  it  to  take  root 
and  grow  to  such  lofty  proportions  in  an  unprepared 
soil. 

In  contrast  to  the  defective  views  outlined  above,  one 
need  not  hesitate  to  believe  that  the  actual  process  by 
which  Old  japan  has  been  transformed  into  New  Japan 
is  perfectly  natural  and  necessary.  It  has  been  a  con- 
tinuous growth;  it  is  not  the  mere  accumulation  of  ex- 
ternal additions;  it  does  not  consist  alone  of  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  machinery  and  the  institutions  of  the  Occi- 
dent. It  is  rather  a  development  from  within,  based 
upon  already  existing  ideas  and  institutions.  New 
Japan  is  the  consequence  of  her  old  endowment  and  her 
new  environment.  Her  evolution  has  been  in  progress 
and  can  be  traced  for  at  least  a  millennium  and  a  half, 
during  which  she  has  been  preparing  for  this  latest  step. 
All  that  was  necessary  for  its  accomplishment  was  the 
new  environment.  The  correctness  of  this  view  and 
the  reasons  for  it  will  appear  as  we  proceed  in  our  study 
of  Japanese  characteristics.  But  we  need  to  note  at  this 
point  the  danger,  into  which  many  fall,  of  ascribing  to 
Japan  an  attainment  of  western  civilization  which  the 


28         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

facts  will  not  warrant.     She  has  secured  much,  but  by 
■    no  means  all,  that  the  West  has  to  give. 

We  may  suggest  our  line  of  thought  by  asking  what  is 
the  fundamental  element  of  civilization?  Does  it  consist 
in  the  manifold  appliances  that  render  life  luxurious; 
the  railroad,  the  telegraph,  the  post  office,  the  manu- 
factures, the  infinite  variety  of  mechanical  and  other 
conveniences?  Or  is  it  not  rather  the  social  and  intel- 
^  lectual  and  ethical  state  of  a  people?  ^Manifestly  the 
1  latter.  The  tools  indeed  of  civilization  may  be  imported 
i  into  a  half-civilized,  or  barbarous  country;  such  impor- 
tation, however,  does  not  render  the  country  civilized, 
although  it  may  assist  greatly  in  the  attainment  of  that 
result.  Civilization  being  mental,  social,  and  ethical, 
can  arise  only  through  the  growth  of  the  mind  and 
character  of  the  vast  multitudes  of  a  nation.  Now  has 
Japan  imported  only  the  tools  of  civilization?  In  other 
words,  is  her  new  civilization  only  external,  formal, 
nominal,  unreal?  That  she  has  imported  much  is  true. 
Yet  that  her  attainments  and  progress  rest  on  her 
social,  intellectual,  and  ethical  development  will  become 
increasingly  clear  as  we  take  up  our  successive  chapters. 
Under  the  new  environment  of  the  past  fifty  years,  this 
growth,  particularly  in  intellectual,  in  industrial,  and  in 
political  lines,  has  been  exceedingly  rapid  as  compared 
with  the  growths  of  other  peoples. 

This  conception  of  the  rise  of  New  Japan  will  doubt- 
less approve  itself  to  every  educated  man  who  will  allow 
his  thought  to  rest  upon  the  subject.  For  all  human 
progress,  all  organic  evolution,  proceeds  by  the  pro- 
gressive modification  of  the  old  organs  under  new  con- 
ditions. The  modern  locomotive  did  not  spring  com- 
plete from  the  mind  of  James  Watt;  it  is  the  result  of 
thousands  of  years  of  human  experience  and  conse- 
quent evolution,  beginning  first  pcrhajis  with  a  rolling 
log,  becoming  a  rude  cart,  and  being  gratlually  trans- 
formed by  successive  inventions  until  it  has  become  one 
of  the  marvels  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  those  who  liave  attained  the  view-jioint  of 
modern  science  to  conceive  of  discontinuous  progress; 
of  continually  rising  types  of  being,  of  thought,  or  of 


PRELIMINARY   CONSIDERATIONS         29 

moral  life,  in  which  the  higher  does  not  find  its  ground 
and  root  and  thus  an  important  part  of  its  explanation, 
in  the  lower.  Such  is  the  case  not  only  with  reference: 
to  biological  evolution;  it  is  especially  true  of  social 
evolution.  He  who  would  understand  the  Japan  of  to- 
day cannot  rest  with  the  bare  statement  that  her  adop- 
tion of  the  tools  and  materials  of  Western  civilization 
has  given  her  her  present  power  and  place  among  the 
nations.  The  student  with  historical  insight  knows  that 
it  is  impossible  for  one  nation,  ofif-hand,  without  prepa- 
ration, to  "  adopt  the  civilization  "  of  another. 

The  study  of  the  evolution  of  Japan  is  one  of  unusual 
interest;  first,  because  of  the  fact  that  Japan  has  experi- 
enced such  unique  changes  in  her  environment.  Her 
history  brings  into  clear  light  some  principles  of  evolu- 
tion which  the  usual  development  of  a  people  does  not 
make  so  clear. 

In  the  second  place,  New  Japan  is  in  a  state  of  rapid 
growth.  She  is  in  a  critical  period,  resembling  a  youth, 
just  coming  to  manhood,  when  all  the  powers  of  growth 
are  most  vigorous.  The  latent  qualities  of  body  and 
mind  and  heart  then  burst  forth  with  peculiar  force. 
In  the  course  of  four  or  five  short  years  the  green  boy 
develops  into  a  refined  and  noble  man;  the  thoughtless 
girl  ripens  into  the  full  maturity  of  womanhood  and 
of  motherhood.  These  are  the  years  of  special  interest 
to  those  who  would  observe  nature  in  her  time  of  most 
critical  activity. 

Not  otherwise  is  it  in  the  life  of  nations.  There  are 
times  when  their  growth  is  phenomenally  rapid;  when 
their  latent  qualities  are  developed;  when  their  growth 
can  be  watched  with  special  ease  and  delight,  because  so 
rapid.  The  Renaissance  was  such  a  period  in  Europe. 
Modern  art,  science,  and  philosophy  took  their  start 
with  the  awakening  of  the  mind  of  Europe  at  that 
eventful  and  epochal  period  of  her  life.  Such,  I  take  it, 
is  the  condition  of  Japan  to-day.  She  is  "  being  born 
again";  undergoing  her  "renaissance."  Her  intellect, 
hitherto  largely  dormant,  is  but  now  awaking.  Her 
ambition  is  equaled  only  by  her  self-reliance.  Her  self- 
confidence  and  amazing  expectations  have  not  yet  been 


30         EVOLUTION    OF  THE   JAPANESE 

sobered  by  hard  experience.  Neither  does  she,  nor  do 
her  critics,  know  how  much  she  can  or  cannot  do.  She 
is  in  the  first  flush  of  her  new-found  powers;  powers  of 
mind  and  spirit,  as  well  as  of  physical  force.  Her 
dreams  are  gorgeous  with  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow. 
Her  efforts  are  sure  to  be  noble  in  proportion  as  her 
ambitions  are  high.  The  growth  of  the  past  half- 
century  is  only  the  beginning  of  what  we  may  expect 
to  see. 

Then  again,  this  latest  and  greatest  step  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  Japan  has  taken  place  at  a  time  unparalleled  for 
opportunities  of  observation,  under  the  incandescent 
light  of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  its  thousands  of 
educated  men  to  observe  and  record  the  facts,  many  of 
whom  are  active  agents  in  the  evolution  in  progress. 
Hundreds  of  papers  and  magazines,  native  and 
European,  read  by  tens  of  thousands  of  intelligent  men 
and  women,  have  kept  the  world  aware  of  the  daily  and 
hourly  events.  Telegraphic  dispatches  and  letters  by 
the  million  have  passed  between  the  far  East  and  the 
West.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  modernizing  of  Japan 
had  been  providentially  delayed  until  the  last  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  with  its  steam  and  electricity,  anni- 
hilators  of  space  and  time,  in  order  that  her  evolution 
might  be  studied  with  a  minuteness  impossible  in  any 
previous  age,  or  by  any  previous  generation.  It  is 
almost  as  if  one  were  conducting  an  experiment  in 
human  evolution  in  his  own  laboratory,  imposing  the 
conditions  and  noting  the  results. 

For  still  another  reason  is  the  evolution  of  New  Japan 
of  special  interest  to  all  intelligent  persons.  To  illus- 
trate great  things  by  small,  and  human  by  physical,  no 
one  wlio  has  visited  Geneva  has  failed  to  see  the  beau- 
tiful mingling  of  the  Arve  and  the  Rhone.  The  latter 
flowing  from  the  calm  Geneva  lake  is  of  delicate  blue, 
pure  and  limpid.  The  former,  running  direct  from  the 
glaciers  of  Mont  Blanc  and  the  roaring  bed  of 
Chamouni,  bears  along  in  its  rushing  waters  powdered 
rocks  and  loosened  soil.  These  rivers,  though  joined 
in  one  bed,  for  hundreds  of  rods  are  qtiite  distinct;  the 
one,  turbitl;  the  other,  clear  as  cr\slal:  yet  they  press 


PRELIMINARY   CONSIDERATIONS        31 

each  against  the  other,  now  a  Httle  of  the  Rhone's  clear 
current  forces  its  way  into  the  Arve,  soon  to  be  carried 
ofif,  absorbed  and  discolored  by  the  mass  of  muddy 
water  around  it.  Now  a  little  of  the  turbid  Arve  forces 
its  way  into  the  clear  blue  Rhone,  to  lose  there  its  iden- 
tity in  the  surrounding  waters.  The  interchange  goes 
on,  increasing  with  the  distance  until,  miles  below,  the 
two  rivers  mingle  as  one.  No  longer  is  it  the  Arve  or 
the  old  Rhone,  but  the  new  Rhone. 

In  Japan  there  is  going  on  to-day  a  process  unique  in 
the  history  of  the  human  race.  Two  streams  of  civiliza- 
•tion,  that  of  the  far  East  and  that  of  the  far  West,  are 
jDeginning  to  flow  in  a  single  channel.  These  streams 
are  exceedingly  diverse,  in  social  structure,  in  govern- 
ment, in  moral  ideals  and  standards,  in  religion,  in  psy- 
chological and  metaphysical  conceptions.  Can  they 
live  together?  Or  is  one  going  to  drive  out  and  anni- 
hilate the  other?  If  so,  which  will  be  victor?  Or  is 
there  to  be  modification  of  both?  In  other  words,  is 
there  to  be  a  new  civilization — a  Japanese,  an  Occi- 
dento-Oriental  civilization? 

The  answer  is  plain  to  him  who  has  eyes  with  which 
to  see.  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin  or  the 
leopard  his  spots?  No  more  can  Japan  lose  all  trace  of 
inherited  customs  of  daily  life,  of  habits  of  thought  and 
language,  products  of  a  thousand  years  of  training  in 
Chinese  literature,  Buddhist  doctrine,  and  Confucian 
ethics.  That  "  the  boy  is  father  to  the  man  "  is  true  of 
a  nation  no  less  than  of  an  individual.  What  a  youth 
has  been  at  home  in  his  habits  of  thought,  in  his  purpose 
and  spirit  and  in  their  manifestation  in  action,  will 
largely  determine  his  after-life.  In  like  manner  the 
mental  and  moral  history  of  Japan  has  so  stamped  cer- 
tain characteristics  on  her  language,  on  her  thought, 
and  above  all  on  her  temperament  and  character,  that, 
however  she  may  strive  to  Westernize  herself,  it  is  im- 
possible for  her  to  obliterate  her  Oriental  features.  She 
will  inevitably  and  always  remain  Japanese. 

_  Japan  has  already  produced  an  Occidento-Oriental 
civilization.  Time  will  serve  progressively  to  Occident- 
alize  it.     But  there  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that  it  will 


32         EVOLUTION    OF    THE    JAPANESE! 

ever  become  wholly  Occidentalized.  A  Westerner 
visiting  Japan  will  always  be  impressed  with  its  Oriental 
features,  while  an  Asiatic  will  be  impressed  with  its 
Occidental  features.  This  progressive  Occidentaliza- 
tion  of  Japan  will  take  place  according  to  the  laws  of 
social  evolution,  of  which  we  must  speak  somewhat 
more  fully  in  a  later  chapter. 

An  important  question  bearing  on  this  problem  is  the 
precise  nature  of  the  characteristics  differentiating  the 
Occident  and  the  Orient.  What  exactly  do  we  mean 
when  we  say  that  the  Japanese  are  Oriental  and  will 
always  bear  the  marks  of  the  Orient  in  their  civilization, 
however  much  they  may  absorb  from  the  West?  The 
importance  and  difficulty  of  this  question  have  led  the 
writer  to  defer  its  consideration  till  toward  the  close  of 
this  work. 

If  one  would  gain  adequate  conception  of  the  process 
now  going  on,  the  illustration  already  used  of  the  min- 
gling of  two  rivers  needs  to  be  supplemented  by  another, 
corresponding  to  a  separate  class  of  facts.  Instead  of 
the  mingling  of  rivers,  let  us  watch  the  confluence  of 
two  glaciers.  What  pressures!  What  grindings! 
What  upheavals!  What  rendings!  Such  is  the  min- 
gling of  two  civilizations.  It  is  not  smooth  and  noise- 
less, but  attended  with  pressure  and  pain.  It  is  a  colli- 
sion in  more  ways  than  one.  The  unfortunates  on 
whom  the  pressures  of  both  currents  are  directed  are 
often  quite  destroyed. 

Comparison  is  often  made  between  Japan  and  India. 
In  both  countries  enormous  social  changes  are  taking 
place;  in  both,  Eastern  and  Western  civilizations  are  in 
contact  and  in  conflict.  The  differences,  however,  are 
even  more  striking  than  the  likenesses.  Most  con- 
spicuous is  the  fact  that  whereas,  in  India,  the  changes  in 
civilization  are  due  almost  wholly  to  the  force  and  rule 
of  the  conquering  race,  in  Japan  these  changes  are  s]ion- 
taneous,  attributable  entirely  to  the  desire  and  initiative 
of  the  native  rulers.  This  difference  is  fundamental  and 
vital.  The  evolution  of  society  in  India  is  to  a  large 
degree  compulsory;  in  a  true  sense  it  is  an  artificial  evo- 
lution.    In   Japan,    on    the    other    hand,    evolution    is 


PRELIMINARY   CONSIDERATIONS         33 

natural.  There  has  not  been  the  sHghtest  physical  com- 
pulsion laid  on  her  from  without.  With  two  rare  ex- 
ceptions, Japan  has  never  heard  the  boom  of  foreign 
cannon  carrying  destruction  to  her  people.  During 
these  years  of  change, there  have  been  none  but  Japanese 
rulers,  and  such  has  been  the  case  throughout  the  entire 
period  of  Japanese  history.  Their  native  rulers  have 
introduced  changes  such  as  foreign  rulers  would  hardly 
have  ventured  upon.  The  adoption  of  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage, literature,  and  religions  from  ten  to  twelve  cen- 
turies ago,  was  not  occasioned  by  a  military  occupancy 
of  Japanese  soil  by  invaders  from  China.  It  was  due 
absolutely  to  the  free  choice  of  their  versatile  people,  as 
free  and  voluntary  as  was  the  adoption  by  Rome  of 
Greek  literature  and  standards  of  learning.  The 
modern  choice  of  Western  material  civilization  no  doubt 
had  elements  of  fear  as  motive  power.  But  impulsion 
through  a  knowledge  of  conditions  differs  radically 
from  compulsion  exercised  by  a  foreign  military  occu- 
pancy.    India  illustrates  the  latter;  Japan,  the  former. 

Japan  and  her  people  manifest  amazing  contrasts. 
Never,  on  the  one  hand,  has  a  nation  been  so  free  from 
foreign  military  occupancy  throughout  a  history  cover- 
ing more  than  fifteen  centuries,  and  at  the  same  time, 
been  so  influenced  by  and  even  subject  to  foreign 
psychical  environment.  What  was  the  fact  in  ancient 
times  is  the  fact  to-day.  The  dominance  of  China  and 
India  has  been  largely  displaced  by  that  of  Europe. 
Western  literature,  language,  and  science,  and  even  cus- 
toms, are  being  welcomed  by  Japan,  and  are  working 
their  inevitable  effects.  But  it  is  all  perfectly  natural, 
perfectly  spontaneous.  The  present  choice  by  Japan  of 
modern  science  and  education  and  methods  and  prin- 
ciples of  government  and  nineteenth-century  literature 
and  law, — in  a  word,  of  Occidental  civilization, — is  not 
due  to  any  artificial  pressure  or  military  occupancy.  But 
the  choice  and  the  consequent  evolution  are  wholly  due 
to  the  free  act  of  the  people.  In  this,  as  in  several  other 
respects,  Japan  reminds  us  of  ancient  Greece.  Dr. 
Menzies,  in  his  "  History  of  Religion,"  says :  "  Greece 
was  not  conquered  from  the  East,  but  stirred  to  new  life 


34         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

by  the  communication  of  new  ideas."  Free  choice  has 
made  Japan  reject  Chinese  astronomy,  surgery,  medi- 
cine, and  jurisprudence.  The  early  choice  to  admit  for- 
eigners to  Japan  to  trade  may  have  been  made  en- 
tirely through  fear,  but  is  now  accepted  and  justified  by 
reason  and  choice. 

The  true  explanation,  therefore,  of  the  recent  and 
rapid  rise  of  Japan  to  power  and  reputation,  is  to  be 
found,  not  in  the  externals  of  her  civilization,  not  in  the 
pressure  of  foreign  governments,  but  rather  in  the  in- 
herited mental  and  temperamental  characteristics,  re- 
acting on  the  new  and  stimulating  environment,  and 
working  along  the  lines  of  true  evolution.  Japan  has 
not  "  jumped  out  of  her  skin,"  but  a  new  vitality  has 
given  that  skin  a  new  color. 


II 

HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

HOW  many  of  the  stories  of  the  Kojiki  (written 
in  712  A.  D.)  and  Nihongi  (720  a.  d.)  are  to  be 
accepted  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute  among 
scholars.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  Japanese  early 
history  is  veiled  in  a  mythology  which  seems  to  center 
about  three  prominent  points:  Kyushu,  in  the  south; 
Yamato,  in  the  east  central,  and  Izumo  in  the  west  cen- 
tral region.  This  mythological  history  narrates  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  victory  of  the  southern  descendants 
of  the  gods  over  the  two  central  regions.  And  it  has 
been  conjectured  that  these  three  centers  represent 
three  waves  of  migration  that  brought  the  ancestors  of 
the  present  inhabitants  of  Japan  to  these  shores.  The 
supposition  is  that  they  came  quite  independently-  and 
began  their  conflicts  only  after  long  periods  of  residence 
and  multiplication. 

Though  this  early  record  is  largely  mythological,  tra- 
dition shows  us  the  progenitors  of  the  modern  Japa- 
nese people  as  conquerors  from  the  west  and  south 
who  drove  the  aborigines  before  them  and  gradually 
took  possession  of  the  entire  land.  That  these  con- 
querors were  not  all  of  the  same  stock  is  proved  by  the 
physical  appearance  of  the  Japanese  to-day,  and  by  their 
language.  Through  these  the  student  traces  an  early 
mixture  of  races — the  Malay,  the  Mongolian,  and  the 
Ural-Altaic.  Whether  the  early  crossing  of  these  races 
bears  vital  relation  to  the  plasticity  of  the  Japanese  is  a 
question  which  tempts  the  scholar. 

Primitive,  inter-tribal  conflicts  of  which  we  have  no 
reliable  records  resulted  in  increasing  intercourse.  Vic- 
tory was  followed  by  federation.  And  through  the 
development  of  a  common  language,  of  common  cus- 
toms and  common  ideas,  the  tribes  were  unified  socially 

35 


36         EVOLUTION    OF   THE    JAPANESE 

and  psychically.  Consciousness  of  this  unity  was  em- 
phasized by  the  age-long  struggle  against  the  Ainu, 
who  were  not  completely  conquered  tmtil  the  eighteenth 
century-. 

With  the  dawn  of  authentic  history-  (500600  a.  d.) 
we  find  amalgamation  of  the  conquering  tribes,  with, 
however,  constantly  recurring  inter-clan  and  inter- 
family  wars.  ^lany  of  these  continued  for  scores  and 
even  hundreds  of  years — proving  that,  in  the  modem 
sense  of  the  word,  the  Japanese  were  not  yet  a  nation, 
though,  through  inter-marriage,  through  the  adoption 
of  important  elements  of  civilization  brought  from 
China  and  India  \'ia  Korea,  through  the  nominal  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Emperor  as  the  divinely  appointed  ruler 
of  the  land,  they  were,  in  race  and  in  civilization,  a  fairly 
homogeneous  people. 

The  national  governmental  system  was  materially 
aflected  by  the  need,  throughout  many  centuries,  of 
systematic  methods  of  defense  against  the  Ainu.  The 
rise  of  the  Shogunate  dates  back  to  883  a.  d..  when  the 
chief  of  the  forces  opposing  the  Ainu  was  appointed  by 
the  Emperor  and  bore  the  official  title,  "  The  Bar- 
barian-expelling Generalissim.o."  This  ofiice  devel- 
oped in  power  tmtil,  some  centuries  later,  it  usurped  in 
fact,  if  not  in  name,  all  the  imperial  prerogatives. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Chinese  written  language, 
literature,  and  ethical  teachings  of  Confucius  came  to 
Japan  from  Korea  after  the  Christian  era.  The  oldest 
known  Japanese  writings  (Japanese  written  with 
Chinese  characters)  date  from  the  eighth  centun.-.  In 
this  period  also  Buddhism  first  came  to  Japan.  For 
over  a  hundred  years  it  made  relatively  little  progress. 
But  when  at  last  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  native 
Japanese  Buddhists  popularized  its  doctrines  and 
adopted  into  its  theogony  the  deities  of  the  aboriginal 
religion,  now  known  as  Shinto,  Buddhism  became  the 
religion  of  the  people,  and  filled  the  land  with  its  great 
temples,  praying  priests,  and  gorgeous  rituals. 

Even  in  those  early  centuries  the  contact  of  Japan  with 
her  Oriental  neighbors  revealed  certain  traits  of  her 
character  which  have  been  conspicuous  in  recent  times 


HISTORICAL   SKETCtI  37 

— great  capacity  for  acquisition,  and  readiness  to  adopt 
freely  from  foreign  nations.  Her  contact  with  China, 
at  that  time  so  far  in  advance  of  herself  in  every  ele- 
ment of  civilization,  was  in  some  respects  disastrous  to 
her  original  growth.  Instead  of  working  out  the  prob- 
lems of  thought  and  life  for  herself,  she  took  what  China 
and  Korea  had  to  give.  The  result  was  an  arrest  in 
the  development  of  everything  distinctively  native.  The 
native  religion  was  so  absorbed  by  Buddhism  that  for  a 
thousand  years  it  lost  all  self-consciousness.  Indeed 
the  modern  clear  demarcation  between  the  native  and 
the  imported  religions  is  a  matter  of  only  a  few  decades, 
due  to  the  researches  of  native  scholars  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  last  and  the  early  part  of  this  century. 
Even  now.  multitudes  of  the  common  people  know  no 
difference  between  the  various  elements  of  the  com- 
posite religion  of  which  they  are  the  heirs. 

Moreover,  early  contact  with  China  and  her  enor- 
mous literature  checked  the  development  of  the  native 
language  and  the  growth  of  the  native  literature.  The 
language  suffered  arrest  because  of  the  rapid  introduc- 
tion of  Chinese  terms  for  all  the  growing  needs  of 
thought  and  civilization.  Modern  Japanese  is  a  com- 
pound of  the  original  tongue  and  Japonicized  Chinese. 
Native  speculative  thought  likewise  found  little  encour- 
agement or  stimulus  fo  independent  activity  in  the 
presence  of  the  elaborate  and  in  many  respects  pro- 
found philosophies  brought  from  India  and  Cliina. 

From  earliest  times  the  government  of  Japan  was 
essentially  feudal.  Powerful  families  and  clans  dis 
puted  and  fought  for  leadership,  and  the  political  his- 
tory of  Japan  revolves  around  the  varying  fortunes  of 
these  families.  While  the  Imperial  line  is  never  lost  to^ 
sight,  it  seldom  rises  to  real  power. 

When,  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Japan's 
conquering  arm  reached  across  the  waters,  to  ravage  the 
coast  of  China,  to  extend  her  influence  as  far  south  as 
Siam,  and  even  to  invade  Korea  with  a  large  army  in 
1592.  it  looked  as  if  she  were  well  started  on  her  career 
as  a  world-power.  But  that  was  not  yet  to  be.  The 
hegemony  of  her  clans   passed   into  the   powerful  and 


38         EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

shrewd  Tokiigawa  family,  the  poHcy  of  which  was  peace 
and  national  self-sufficiency. 

The  representatives  of  the  Occidental  nations  (chiefly 
of  Spain  and  Portui^al)  were  banished.  The  Christian 
religion  (Roman  Catholic),  which  for  over  fifty  years 
had  enjoyed  free  access  and  had  made  great  progress, 
was  forbidden  and  stamped  out,  not  without  much 
bloodshed.  Foreign  travel  and  commerce  were  strictly 
interdicted.  A  particular  school  of  Confucian  ethics 
was  adopted  and  taught  as  the  state  religion.  Feudal- 
ism was  systematically  established  and  intentionally 
developed.  Each  and  every  man  had  his  assigned 
and  recognized  place  in  the  social  fabric,  and  change 
was  not  easy.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  European  coun- 
try has  ever  given  feudalism  so  long  and  thorough 
a  trial.  Never  has  feudalism  attained  so  complete  a 
development  as  it  did  in  Japan  under  the  Tokugawa 
regime  of  over  250  years. 

During-  this  period  no  influences  came  from  other 
lands  to  disturb  the  natural  development.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  three  ships  a  year  from  Holland,  an  occa- 
sional stray  ship  from  other  lands,  and  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  Dutchmen  isolated  in  a  little  island  in  the  harbor 
of  Nagasaki,  Japan  had  no  communication  with  foreign 
lands  or  alien  peoples. 

Of  this  period,  extending  to  the  middle  of  the  present 
century,  the  ordinary  visitor  and  even  the  resident  have 
but  a  superficial  knowledge.  All  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  in  Japan,  since  the  coming  of  Perry  in  1854, 
are  attributed  by  the  easy-going  tourist  to  the  external 
pressure  of  foreign  nations.  But  such  travelers  know 
nothing  of  the  internal  preparations  that  had  been  mak- 
ing for  generations  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Perry. 
The  tourist  is  quite  ignorant  of  the  line  of  Japanese 
scholars  that  had  been  undermining  the  authority  of  the 
military  rulers,  "  the  Tokugawa,"  in  favor  of  the  Im- 
perial line  which  they  had  practically  supplanted. 

The  casual  student  of  Jai)an  has  been  e(|ually  igno- 
rant of  the  real  mental  and  moral  caliber  of  the  Japa- 
nese. Dressed  in  clothing  that  apjieared  to  us  fantastic, 
and  armed  with  cumbersome  armor  and  old-fashioned 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  39 

guns,  it  was  easy  to  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
people  were  essentially  uncivilized.  We  did  not  know 
the  intellectual  discipline  demanded  of  one,  whether 
native  or  foreign,  who  would  master  the  native  language 
or  the  native  systems  of  thought.  We  forgot  that  we 
appeared  as  grotesque  and  as  barbarous  to  them  as 
they  to  us,  and  that  mental  ability  and  moral  worth  are 
qualities  that  do  not  show  on  the  surface  of  a  nation's 
civilization.  While  they  thought  us  to  be  "  unclean," 
"  dogs,"  "  red-haired  devils,"  we  perhaps  thought  them 
to  be  clever  savages,  or  at  best  half-civilized  heathen, 
without  moral  perceptions  or  intellectual  ability. 

Of  Old  Japan  little  more  needs  to  be  said.  Without 
external  commerce,  there  was  little  need  for  internal 
trade;  ships  were  small;  roads  were  footpaths;  educa- 
tion was  limited  to  the  samurai,  or  military  class,  re- 
tainers of  the  daimyo,  *'  feudal  lords  " ;  inter-clan  travel 
was  limited  and  discouraged ;  Confucian  ethics  was  the 
moral  standard.  From  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  Christianity  was  forbidden  by  edict,  and  was 
popularly  known  as  the  "  evil  way  ";  Japan  was  thought 
to  be  especially  sacred,  and  the  coming  of  foreigners 
was  supposed  to  pollute  the  land  and  to  be  the  cause  of 
physical  evils.  Education,  as  in  China,  was  limited  to 
the  Chinese  classics.  Mathematics,  general  history,  and 
science,  in  the  modern  sense,  were  of  course  wholly  un- 
known. Guns  and  powder  were  brought  from  the  West 
in  the  sixteenth  century  by  Spaniards  and  Portuguese, 
but  were  never  improved.  Ship-building  was  the  same 
in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  as  in  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth,  perhaps  even  less  advanced.  Archi- 
tecture had  received  its  great  impulse  from  the  intro- 
duction of  Buddhism  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries 
and  had  made  no  material  improvement  thereafter. 

But  while  there  was  little  progress  in  the  external  and 
mechanical  elements  of  civilization,  there  was  progress 
in  other  respects.  During  the  "  great  peace,"  first 
arose  great  scholars.  Culture  became  more  general 
throughout  the  nation.  Education  was  esteemed.  The 
corrupt  lives  of  the  priests  were  condemned  and  an 
effort  was  made  to  reform  life  through  the  revival  of  a 


40         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

certain  school  of  Confucian  teachers  known  as  "  Shin- 
Gaku  " — "  Heart-Knowledge."  Art  also  made  prog- 
ress, both  pictorial  and  manual.  It  would  almost  seem 
as  if  modern  artificers  and  painters  had  lost  the  skill  of 
their  forefathers  of  one  or  two  hundred  years  ago. 

Many  reasons  explain  the  continuance  of  the  old  po- 
litical and  social  order:  the  lack  of  a  foreign  foe  to  com- 
pel abandonment  of  the  tribal  organization;  the  moun- 
tainous nature  of  the  country  with  its  slow,  primitive 
means  of  intercommunication;  the  absence  of  all  idea 
of  a  completely  centralized  nation.  Furthermore,  the 
principle  of  complete  subordination  to  superiors  and 
ancestors  had  become  so  strong  that  individual  innova- 
tions were  practically  impossible.  Japan  thus  lacked 
the  indispensable  key  to  further  progress,  the  principle 
of  individualism.  The  final  step  in  the  development  of 
her  nationality  has  been  taken,  therefore,  only  in  our 
own  time. 

Old  Japan  seemed  absolutely  committed  to  a  thor- 
ough-going antagonism  to  everything  foreign.  New 
Japan  seems  committed  to  the  opposite  policy.  What 
are  the  steps  by  which  she  has  effected  this  apparent 
national  reversal  of  attitude? 

We  should  first  note  that  the  absolutism  of  the  Toku- 
gawa  Shogunate  served  to  arouse  ever-growing  opposi- 
tion because  of  its  stern  repression  of  individual  opinion. 
It  not  only  forbade  the  Christian  religion,  but  also  all 
independent  thought  in  religious  philosoi)hy  and  in  poli- 
tics. The  particular  form  of  Confucian  moral  philoso- 
phy which  it  held  was  forced  on  all  public  teachers  of 
Confucianism.  Dissent  was  not  only  heretical,  but 
treasonable.  Although,  by  its  military  absolutism,  the 
Tokugawa  rule  secured  the  great  blessing  of  peace,  last- 
ing over  two  hundred  years,  and  although  the  curse  of 
Japan  for  well-nigh  a  thousand  preceding  years  had 
been  fierce  inter-tribal  and  inter-family  wars  and  feuds, 
yet  it  secured  that  peace  at  the  expense  of  individual 
liberty  of  thought  and  act.  It  thus  gradually  aroused 
against  itself  the  opposition  of  many  able  minds.  The 
enforced  peace  rendered  it  possible  for  these  men  to 
devote  themselves  to  problems  of  thought  and  of  his- 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH 


41 


tory.  Indeed,  they  had  no  other  outlet  for  their  ener- 
gies. As  they  studied  the  history  of  the  past  and  com- 
pared their  resuUs  with  the  facts  of  the  present,  it  grad- 
ually dawned  on  the  minds  of  the  scholars  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  that  the  Tokugawa  family  were  exer- 
cising functions  of  government  which  had  never  been 
delegated  to  them ;  and  that  the  Emperor  was  a  poverty- 
stricken  puppet  in  the  hands  of  a  family  that  had  seized 
the  military  power  and  had  gradually  absorbed  all  the 
active  functions  of  government,  together  with  its  reve- 
nues. 

It  is  possible  for  us  to  see  now  that  these  early  Jap- 
anese scholars  idealized  their  ancient  history,  and  as- 
signed to  the  Emperor  a  place  in  ancient  times  which 
in  all  probability  he  has  seldom  held.  But,  however 
that  may  be,  they  thought  their  view  correct,  and  held 
that  the  Emperor  was  being  deprived  of  his  rightful  rule 
by  the  Tokugawa  family. 

These  ideas,  first  formulated  in  secret  by  scholars, 
gradually  filtered  down,  still  in  secrecy,  and  were  ac- 
cepted by  a  large  number  of  the  samurai,  the  military 
literati  of  the  land.  Their  opposition  to  the  actual 
rulers  of  the  land,  aroused  by  the  individual-crushing 
absolutism  of  the  Tokugawa  rule,  naturally  allied  itself 
to  the  religious  sentiment  of  loyalty  to  the  Emperor. 
Few  Westerners  can  appreciate  the  full  significance  of 
this  fact.  Throughout  the  centuries  loyalty  to  the  Em- 
peror has  been  considered  a  cardinal  virtue.  With  one 
exception,  according  to  the  popular  histories,  no  one 
ever  acknowledged  himself  opposed  to  the  Emperor. 
Every  rebellion  against  the  powers  in  actual  possession 
made  it  the  first  aim  to  gain  possession  of  the  Emperor, 
and  proclaim  itself  as  fighting  for  him.  When,  there- 
fore, the  scholars  announced  that  the  existing  govern- 
ment was  in  reality  a  usurpation  and  that  the  Emperor 
was  robbed  of  his  rightful  powers,  the  latent  antagonism 
to  the  Tokugawa  rule  began  to  find  both  intellectual  and 
moral  justification.  It  could  and  did  appeal  to  the  re- 
ligious patriotism  of  the  people.  It  is  perhaps  not  too 
much  to  say  that  the  overthrow  of  the  Tokugawa  family 
and  the  restoration  of  the  Imperial  rule  to  the  Imperial 


42         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

family  would  have  taken  place  even  though  there  had 
been  no  interference  of  foreign  nations,  no  extraneous 
influences.  But  eciually  certain  is  it  that  these  antag- 
onisms to  the  ruling  family  were  crystallized,  and  the 
great  internal  changes  hastened  by  the  coming  in  of  the 
aggressive  foreign  nations.  How  this  external  influence 
operated  must  and  can  be  told  in  a  few  words. 

When  Admiral  Perry  negotiated  his  treaty  with  the 
Japanese,  he  supposed  he  was  dealing  with  responsible 
representatives  of  the  government.  As  was  later 
learned,  however,  the  Tokugawa  rulers  had  not  secured 
the  formal  assent  of  the  Emperor  to  the  treaty.  The 
Tokugawa  rulers  and  their  counselors,  quite  as  much 
as  the  clan-rulers,  wished  to  keep  the  foreigners  out  of 
the  country,  but  they  realized  their  inability.  The  rulers 
of  the  clans,  however,  felt  that  the  Tokugawa  rulers 
had  betrayed  the  land;  they  were,  accordingly,  in  active 
opposition  both  to  the  foreigners  and  to  the  national 
rulers.  When  the  foreigners  requested  the  Japanese 
government,  *'  the  Tokugawa  Shogunate,"  to  carry  out 
the  treaties,  it  was  unable  to  comply  with  the  request 
because  of  the  antagonism  of  the  clan-rulers.  When 
the  clan-rulers  demanded  that  the  government  annul  the 
treaties  and  drive  out  the  hated  and  much-feared 
foreigners,  it  found  itself  utterly  unable  to  do  so, 
because  of  the  formidable  naval  power  of  the  for- 
eigners. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  state  of  affairs,  a  few  serious 
collisions  took  place  between  the  foreigners  and  the 
two-sworded  samurai,  retainers  of  the  clan-rulers.  The 
Tokugawa  rulers  apparently  did  their  best  to  protect 
the  foreigners,  and,  when  there  was  no  possible  method 
of  evasion,  to  execute  the  treaties  they  had  made.  But 
they  could  not  control  the  clans  already  rebellious.  A 
few  murders  of  foreigners,  followed  by  severe  reprisals, 
and  two  bombardments  of  native  towns  by  foreign  gun- 
boats, began  to  reveal  to  the  military  class  at  large 
that  no  individual  or  local  action  against  the  foreigners 
was  at  all  to  be  thought  of.  The  first  step  necessary  was 
the  unification  of  the  Empire  under  the  Imperial  rule. 
This,  however,  could  be  dcjue  only  bv  the  overthrow  of 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  43 

the  Tokugawa  Shogawa;  which  was  effected  in  1867-68 
after  a  short  struggle,  marked  by  great  clemency. 

We  thus  reahze  that  the  overthrow  of  the  Shogunate 
as  also  the  final  abolishment  of  feudalism  with  its  clans, 
lords,  and  hereditary  rulers,  and  the  establishment  of 
those  principles  of  political  and  personal  centralization 
which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  real  national  unity,  not 
only  were  hastened  by,  but  in  a  marked  degree  depend- 
ent on,  the  stimulus  and  contribution  of  foreigners. 
They  compelled  a  more  complete  Japanese  unity  than 
had  existed  before,  for  they  demanded  direct  relations 
with  the  national  head.  And  when  treaty  negotiations 
revealed  the  lack  of  such  a  head,  they  undertook  to 
show  its  necessity  by  themselves  punishing  those  local 
rulers  who  did  not  recognize  the  Tokugawa  headship. 

With  the  establishment  of  the  Emperor  on  the 
throne,  began  the  modern  era  in  Japanese  history, 
known  in  Japan  as  "  Meiji  " — "  Enlightened  Rule." 

But  not  even  yet  was  the  purpose  of  the  nation  at- 
tained, namely,  the  expulsion  of  the  polluters  of  the 
sacred  soil  of  Japan.  As  soon  as  the  new  government 
was  established  and  had  turned  its  attention  to  foreign 
affairs,  it  found  itself  in  as  great  a  dilemma  as  had  its 
predecessors,  the  Tokugawa  rulers.  For  the  foreign 
governments  insisted  that  the  treaties  negotiated  with 
the  old  government  should  be  accepted  in  full  by  the 
new.  It  was  soon  as  evident  to  the  new  rulers  as  it 
had  been  to  the  old  that  direct  and  forcible  resistance? 
to  the  foreigners  was  futile.  Not  by  might  were  they 
to  be  overcome.  Westerners  had,  however,  supplied 
the  ideals  whereby  national,  political  unity  was  to  be 
secured.  Mill's  famous  work  on  "  Representative  Gov- 
ernment "  was  early  translated,  and  read  by  all  the  think- 
ing men  of  the  day.  These  ideas  were  also  keenly 
studied  in  their  actual  workings  in  the  West.  The 
consequence  was  that  feudalism  was  utterly  rejected 
and  the  new  ideas,  more  or  less  modified,  were  speedily 
adopted,  even  down  to  the  production  of  a  constitution 
and  the  establishment  of  local  representative  assem- 
blies and  a  national  diet.  In  other  words,  the  theories 
and  practices  of  the  West  in  regard  to  the  political  or- 


44         EVOLUTION    OF   THE    JAPANESE 

ganization  of  the  state  supplied  Japan  with  those  new 
intellectual  variations  which  were  essential  to  the 
higher  development  of  her  own  national  unity. 

A  further  point  of  importance  is  the  fact  that  at  the 
very  time  that  the  West  applied  this  pressure  and  sup- 
plied Japan  with  these  political  ideals  she  also  put  within 
her  reach  the  material  instruments  which  would  enable 
her  to  carry  them  into  practice.  I  refer  to  steam  loco- 
motion by  land  and  sea,  the  postal  and  telegraphic  sys- 
tems of  communication,  the  steam  printing  press,  the 
system  of  popular  education,  and  the  modern  organiza- 
tion of  the  army  and  the  navy.  These  instruments  Japan 
made  haste  to  acquire.  But  for  these,  the  rapid  trans- 
formation of  Old  Japan  into  New  Japan  would  have 
been  an  exceedingly  long  and  difficult  process.  The 
adoption  of  these  tools  of  civilization  by  the  central 
authority  at  once  gave  it  an  immense  superiority  over 
any  local  force.  For  it  could  communicate  speedily 
with  every  part  of  the  Empire,  and  enforce  its  decisions 
with  a  celerity  and  a  decisiveness  before  unknown.  It 
became  once  more  the  actual  head  of  the  nation. 

We  have  thus  reached  the  exi:)lanation  of  one  of  the 
most  astonishing  changes  in  national  attitude  that  his- 
tory has  to  record,  and  the  new  attitude  seems  such  a 
contradiction  of  the  old  as  to  be  inexplicable,  and  almost 
incredible.  But  a  better  knowledge  of  the  facts  and  a 
deeper  understanding  of  their  significance  will  serve  to 
remove  this  first  impression. 

What,  then,  did  the  new  government  do?  It  simply 
said,  "  For  us  to  drive  out  tlicse  foreigners  is  impossi- 
ble; but  neither  is  it  desirable.  We  need  to  know  the 
secrets  of  their  power.  We  must  study  their  language, 
their  science,  their  machinery,  their  steamboats,  their 
battle-ships.  We  must  learn  all  their  secrets,  and  then 
we  shall  be  able  to  turn  them  out  without  difficulty. 
Let  us  therefore  restrict  them  carefully  to  the  treaty 
ports,  but  let  us  make  all  the  use  of  them  we  can." 

This  has  virtually  been  the  national  policy  of  Japan 
ever  since.  And  this  policy  gained  the  acceptance  of 
the  people  as  a  whole  witli  marvelous  readiness,  for  a 
reason  which  few  foreigners  can  appreciate.     Mad  this 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  45 

policy  been  formulated  and  urged  by  the  Tokugawa 
rulers,  there  is  no  probability  that  it  would  have  been 
accepted.  But  because  it  was,  ostensibly  at  least,  the 
declared  will  of  the  Emperor,  loyalty  to  him,  which  in 
Japan  is  both  religion  and  patriotism,  led  to  a  hearty 
and  complete  acceptance  which  could  hardly  have  been 
realized  in  any  other  land.  During  the  first  year  of  his 
"  enlightened  "  rule  (1868),  the  Emperor  gave  his  sanc- 
tion to  an  Edict,  the  last  two  clauses  of  which  read  as 
follows: 

"  The  old,  uncivilized  way  shall  be  replaced  by  the 
eternal  principles  of  the  universe. 

"  The  best  knowledge  shall  be  sought  throughout  the 
world,  so  as  to  promote  the  Imperial  welfare." 

It  is  the  wide  acceptance  of  this  policy,  which,  how- 
ever, is  in  accord  with  the  real  genius  of  the  people,  that 
has  transformed  Japan.  It  has  sent  hundreds  of  its 
young  men  to  foreign  lands  to  learn  and  bring  back  to 
Japan  the  secrets  of  Western  power  and  wealth;  it  has 
established  roads  and  railways,  postal  and  telegraphic 
facilities,  a  public  common-school  system,  colleges  and 
a  university  in  which  Western  science,  history,  and 
languages  have  been  taught  by  foreign  and  foreign- 
trained  instructors;  daily,  weekly,  and  monthly  papers 
and  magazines;  factories,  docks,  drydocks;  local  and 
foreign  commerce;  representative  government — in  a 
word,  all  the  characteristic  features  of  New  Japan.  The 
whole  of  New  Japan  is  only  the  practical  carrying  out 
of  the  policy  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  era, 
when  it  was  found  impossible  to  cast  out  the  foreigners 
by  force.  Brute  force  being  found  to  be  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, resort  was  thus  made  to  intellectual  force,  and 
with  real  success. 

The  practice  since  then  has  not  been  so  much  to  re- 
tain the  foreigner  as  to  learn  of  him  and  then  to  elimi- 
nate him.  Every  branch  of  learning  and  industry  has 
proved  this  to  be  the  consistent  Japanese  policy.  No 
foreigner  may  hope  to  obtain  a  permanent  position  in 
Japanese  employ,  either  in  private  firms  or  in  the  gov- 
ernment. A  foreigner  is  useful  not  for  what  he  can  do, 
but  for  what  he  can  teach.    When  any  Japanese  can  do 


46        EVOLUTION   OF    THE   JAPANESE 

his  work  tolerably  well,  the  foreigner  is  sure  to  be 
dropped. 

The  purpose  of  this  volume  does  not  require  of  us  a 
minute  statistical  statement  of  the  present  attainments 
of  New  Japan.  Such  information  may  be  procured  from 
Henry  Norman's  "  Real  Japan,"  Ransome's  "  Japan  in 
Transition,"  and  Newton's  "Japan:  Country,  Court, 
and  People."  It  is  enough  for  us  to  realize  that  Japan 
has  wholly  abandoned  or  profoundly  modified  all  the 
external  features  of  her  old,  her  distinctively  Oriental 
civilization  and  has  replaced  them  by  Occidental  fea- 
tures. In  government,  she  is  no  longer  arbitrary,  auto- 
cratic, and  hereditary,  but  constitutional  and  representa- 
tive. Town,  provincial,  and  national  legislative  assem- 
blies are  established,  and  in  fairly  good  working  order, 
all  over  the  land.  The  old  feudal  customs  have  been 
replaced  by  well  codified  laws,  which  are  on  the  whole 
faithfully  administered  according  to  Occidental  meth- 
ods. Examination  by  torture  has  been  abolished.  The 
perfect  Occidentalization  of  the  army,  and  the  creation 
of  an  efficient  navy,  are  facts  fully  demonstrated  to  the 
world.  The  limited  education  of  the  few — and  in  ex- 
clusively Chinese  classics — has  given  place  to  popular 
education.  Common  schools  number  over  30,000, 
taught  by  about  100,000  teachers  (4278  being  women), 
having  over  4,500,000  pupils  (over  1,500,000  being 
girls).  The  school  accommodation  is  insufficient ;  it  is 
said  that  30,000  additional  teachers  arc  needed  at  once. 
Middle  and  high  schools  throughout  the  land  are  re- 
jecting nearly  one-half  of  the  student  applicants  for 
lack  of  accommodation. 

Feudal  isolation,  repression,  and  seclusion  have  given 
way  to  free  travel,  free  speech,  and  a  free  press.  News- 
papers, magazines,  and  books  pour  forth  from  the  uni- 
versal printing  press  in  great  profusion.  Twenty  dailies 
issue  in  the  course  of  a  year  over  a  million  copies  each, 
while  two  of  them  circulate  24,000,000  and  21,000,000 
copies,  respectively. 

Personal,  ])olitical,  and  religious  liberty  has  been 
practically  secure  now  for  over  two  decades,  guaran- 
teed by  the  constitution,  and  enforced  by  the  courts. 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  47 

Chinese  medical  practice  has  largely  been  replaced  by 
that  from  the  West,  although  many  of  the  ignorant 
classes  still  prefer  the  old  methods.  The  government 
enforces  Western  hygienic  principles  in  all  public  mat- 
ters, with  the  result  that  the  national  health  has  im- 
proved and  the  population  is  growing  at  an  alarming 
rate.  While  in  1872  the  people  numbered  33,000,000, 
in  1898  they  numbered  45,000,000.  The  general  scale 
of  living  for  the  common  people  has  also  advanced  con- 
spicuously. Meat  shops  are  now  common  throughout 
the  land — a  thing  unknown  in  pre-Meiji  times — and 
rice,  which  used  to  be  the  luxury  of  the  wealthy  few,  has 
become  the  staple  necessity  of  the  many. 

Postal  and  telegraph  facilities  are  quite  complete. 
Macadamized  roads  and  well-built  railroads  have  re- 
placed the  old  footpaths,  except  in  the  most  mountain- 
ous districts.  Factories  of  many  kinds  are  appearing 
in  every  town  and  city.  Business  corporations,  banks, 
etc.,  which  numbered  only  thirty-four  so  late  as  1864  are 
now  numbered  by  the  thousand,  and  trade  flourishes  as 
in  no  previous  period  of  Japanese  history.  Instead  of 
being  a  country  of  farmers  and  soldiers,  Japan  is  to-day 
a  land  of  farmers  and  merchants.  Wealth  is  growing 
apace.  International  commerce,  too,  has  sprung  up  and 
expanded  phenomenally.  Japanese  merchant  steamers 
may  now  be  seen  in  every  part  of  the  world. 

All  these  changes  have  taken  place  within  about 
three  decades,  and  so  radical  have  they  been, — so  pro- 
ductive of  new  life  in  Japan, — that  some  have  urged  the 
re-writing  of  Japanese  history,  making  the  first  year 
of  Meiji  (1868)  the  year  one  of  Japan,  instead  of  reckon- 
ing from  the  year  in  which  Jimmu  Tenno  is  said  to  have 
ascended  the  throne,  2560  years  ago  (b.  c.  660). 

The  way  in  which  Japanese  regard  the  transforma- 
tions produced  by  the  "  restoration  "  of  the  present  Em- 
peror, upon  the  overthrow  of  the  "  Bakufu,"  or  "  Cur- 
tain Government,"  may  be  judged,  from  the  following 
graphic  paragraph  from  The  Far  East: 

"The  Restoration  of  Meiji  was  indeed  the  greatest 
of  revolutions  that  this  island  empire  ever  underwent. 


48         EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

Its  magic  wand  left  nothing  untouched  and  unchanged. 
It  was  the  Restoration  that  overthrew  the  Tokugawa 
Shogunate,  which  reigned  supreme  for  over  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half.  It  was  the  Restoration  that  brought 
us  face  to  face  with  the  Occidentals.  It  was  the  Resto- 
ration that  pulled  the  demigods  of  the  Feudal  lords 
down  to  the  level  of  the  commoners.  It  was  the  Res- 
toration that  deprived  the  samurai  of  their  fiefs  and 
reduced  them  to  penury.  It  was  the  Restoration  that 
taught  the  people  to  build  their  houses  of  bricks  and 
stones  and  to  construct  ships  and  bridges  of  iron  instead 
of  wood.  It  was  the  Restoration  that  informed  us  that 
eclipses  and  comets  are  not  to  be  feared,  and  that  earth- 
quakes are  not  caused  by  a  huge  cat-fish  in  the  bottom 
of  the  earth.  It  was  the  Restoration  that  taught  the 
people  to  use  the  "  drum-backing  "  thunder  as  their  mes- 
senger, and  to  make  use  of  the  railroad  instead  of  the 
palanquin.  It  was  the  Restoration  that  set  the  earth 
in  motion,  and  proved  that  there  is  no  rabbit  in  the 
moon.  It  was  the  Restoration  that  bestowed  on  Soc- 
rates and  Aristotle  the  chairs  left  vacant  by  Confucius 
and  Mencius.  It  was  the  Restoration  that  let  Shak- 
spere  and  Goethe  take  the  place  of  Bakin  and  Chika- 
matsu.  It  was  the  Restoration  that  deprived  the  people 
of  the  swords  and  topnots.  In  short,  after  the  Restora- 
tion a  great  change  took  place  in  administration,  in  art, 
in  science,  in  literature,  in  language  spoken  and  written, 
in  taste,  in  custom,  in  the  mode  of  living,  nay  in  every- 
thing "  (p.  541). 

A  natural  outcome  of  the  Restoration  is  the  exuber- 
ant patriotism  that  is  so  characteristic  a  feature  of  New 
Japan.  The  very  term  "  ai-koku-shin  "  is  a  new  crea- 
tion, almost  as  new  as  the  thing.  This  word  is  an  in- 
cidental proof  of  the  general  correctness  of  the  conten- 
tion of  this  chapter  that  true  nationality  is  a  recent 
product  in  Japan.  The  term,  literally  translated,  is 
"  love-country  heart" ;  but  the  point  for  us  to  notice 
particularly  is  the  term  for  country,  "  koku";  this  word 
has  never  before  meant  the  country  as  a  whole,  but 
only  the  territory  of  a  clan.    If  I  wish  to  ask  a  Japanese 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  49 

what  part  of  Japan  is  his  native  home,  I  must  use  this 
word.  And  if  a  Japanese  wishes  to  ask  me  which  of  the 
foreign  lands  I  am  a  native  of,  he  must  use  the  same 
word.  The  truth  is  that  Old  Japan  did  not  have  any 
common  word  corresponding  to  the  English  term,  "  My 
country."  In  ancient  times,  this  could  only  mean,  "  My 
clan-territory."  But  with  the  passing  away  of  the  clans 
the  old  word  has  taken  on  a  new  significance.  The  new 
word,  "  ai-koku-shin,"  refers  not  to  love  of  clan,  but 
to  love  of  the  whole  nation.  The  conception  of  na- 
tional unity  has  at  last  seized  upon  the  national  mind 
and  heart,  and  is  giving  the  people  an  enthusiasm  for 
the  nation,  regardless  of  the  parts,  which  they  never  be- 
fore knew.  Japanese  patriotism  has  only  in  this  gen- 
eration come  to  self-consciousness.  This  leads  it  to 
many  a  strange  freak.  It  is  vociferous  and  imperious, 
and  often  very  impractical  and  Chauvinistic.  It  fre- 
quently takes  the  form  of  u.ncompromising  disdain  for 
the  foreigner,  and  the  most  absolute  loyalty  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan;  it  demands  the  utmost  respect  of 
expression  in  regard  to  him  and  the  form  of  government 
he  has  graciously  granted  the  nation.  The  slightest 
hint  or  indirect  suggestion  of  defect  or  ignorance,  or 
even  of  limitation,  is  most  vehemently  resented. 

A  few  illustrations  of  the  above  statements  from 
recent  experience  will  not  be  out  of  place.  In  August, 
1891,  the  Minister  of  Education,  Mr.  Y.  Osaki,  criticis- 
ing the  tendency  in  Japan  to  pay  undue  respect  to 
moneyed  men,  said,  in  the  course  of  a  long  speech, 
"  You  Japanese  worship  money  even  more  reverently 
than  the  Americans  do.  If  you  had  a  republic  as  they 
have,  I  believe  you  would  nominate  an  Iwazaki  or  a 
Mitsui  to  be  president,  whereas  they  don't  think  of 
nominating  a  Vanderbilt  or  a  Gould."  It  was  not  long 
before  a  storm  was  raging  around  his  head  because  of 
this  reference  to  a  republican  form  of  government  as  a 
possibility  in  Japan.  The  storm  became  so  fierce  that 
he  was  finally  compelled  to  resign  his  post  and  retire, 
temporarily,  from  political  life. 

In  October,  1898,  the  High  Council  of  Education  was 
required  to  consider  various  questions  regarding  the 


50         EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

conduct  of  the  educational  department  after  the  New 
Treaties  should  come  into  force.  The  most  important 
question  was  whether  foreigners  should  be  allowed  to 
have  a  part  in  the  education  of  Japanese  youth.  The 
general  argument,  and  that  which  prevailed,  was  that 
this  should  not  be  allowed  lest  the  patriotism  of  the  chil- 
dren be  weakened.  So  far  as  appears  but  one  voice  was 
raised  for  a  more  liberal  policy.  Mr.  Y.  Kamada  main- 
tained that  '*  patriotism  in  Japan  was  the  outcome  of 
foreign  intercourse.  Patriotism,  that  is  to  say,  love  of 
country — not  merely  of  fief — and  readiness  to  sacrifice 
everything  for  its  sake,  was  a  product  of  the  Meiji  era." 

In  1891  a  teacher  in  the  Kumamoto  Boys'  School  gave 
expression  to  the  thought  in  a  public  address  that,  as  all 
mankind  are  brothers,  the  school  should  stand  for  the 
principle  of  universal  brotherhood  and  universal  good- 
will to  men.  This  expression  of  universalism  was  so 
obnoxious  to  the  patriotic  spirit  of  so  large  a  number  of 
the  people  of  Kumamoto  Ken,  or  Province,  that  the 
governor  required  the  school  to  dismiss  that  teacher. 
There  is  to-day  a  strong  party  in  Japan  which  makes 
"  Japanism  "  their  cry;  they  denounce  all  expressions  of 
universal  good-will  as  proofs  of  deficiency  of  patriotism. 
There  are  not  wanting  those  who  see  through  the  shal- 
lowness of  such  views  and  who  vigorously  oppose  and 
condemn  such  narrow  patriotism.  Yet  the  fact  that  it 
exists  to-day  with  such  force  must  be  noted  and  its 
natural  explanation,  too,  must  not  be  forgotten.  It  is 
an  indication  of  self-conscious  nationality. 

That  this  love  of  country,  even  this  conception  of 
country,  is  a  modern  thing  will  appear  from  two  further 
facts.  Until  modern  times  there  was  no  such  thing  as 
a  national  flag.  The  flaming  Sun  on  a  field  of  white 
came  into  existence  as  a  national  flag  only  in  1859.  The 
use  of  the  Sun  as  the  syml)ol  for  the  l^nipcror  has  been 
in  vogue  since  700  a.  d.,  the  custom  having  been  adopted 
from  Qiina.  "When  in  1859  a  national  flag  corre- 
sponding to  those  of  Europe  became  necessary,  the  Sun 
Banner  naturally  stepped  into  the  vacant  place."  * 

The  second  fact  is  the  recent  origin  of  the  festival 

*  "  Tliiiij^s  Japanese,"  p.  156. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  51 

known  as  "  Kigensetsu."  It  occurs  on  February  11  and 
celebrates  the  alleged  accession  of  Jimmu  Tenno,  the 
first  Emperor  of  Japan,  to  the  throne  2560  years  ago 
(660  B.  c).  The  festival  itself,  however,  was  instituted 
by  Imperial  decree  ten  years  ago  (1890). 

The  transformation  which  has  come  over  Japan  in  a 
single  generation  requires  interpretation.  Is  the 
change  real  or  superficial?  Is  the  new  social  order  "a 
borrowed  trumpery  garment,  which  will  soon  be  rent  by 
violent  revolutions,"  according  to  the  eminent  student 
of  racial  psychology,  Professor  Le  Bon,  or  is  it  of  "  a 
solid  nature  "  according  to  the  firm  belief  of  Mr.  Stan- 
ford Ransome,  one  of  the  latest  writers  on  Japan? 

This  is  the  problem  that  will  engage  our  attention 
more  or  less  directly  throughout^  this  work.  We  shall 
give  our  chief  thought  to  the  nature  and  development  of 
Japanese  racial  characteristics,  believing  that  this  alone 
gives  the  light  needed  for  the  solution  of  the  problem.* 

*  Let  not  the  reader  gather  from  the  very  brief  glance  at  the 
attainments  of  New  Japan,  that  she  has  overtaken  the  nations 
of  Christendom  in  all  important  respects;  for  such  is  far  from 
the  case.  He  needs  to  be  on  his  guard  not  to  overestimate  what 
has  been  accomplished. 


Ill 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  PROGRESS 

WHAT  constitutes  progress?  And  what  is  the 
true  criterion  for  its  measurement?  In  adopt- 
ing Western  methods  of  Hfe  and  thought,  is 
Japan  advancing  or  receding?  The  simphcity  of  the 
life  of  the  common  people,  their  freedom  from  fashions 
that  fetter  the  Occidental,  their  independence  of  furni- 
ture in  their  homes,  their  few  wants  and  fewer  necessi- 
ties— these,  when  contrasted  with  the  endless  needs  and 
demands  of  an  Occidental,  are  accepted  by  some  as  evi- 
dences of  a  higher  stage  of  civilization  than  prevails  in 
the  West. 

The  hedonistic  criterion  of  progress  is  the  one  most 
commonly  adopted  in  considering  the  question  as  to 
whether  japan  is  the  gainer  or  the  loser  by  her  rapid 
abandonment  of  old  ways  and  ideas  and  by  her  equally 
rapid  adoption  of  Western  ones  in  their  place.  Yet  this 
appeal  to  happiness  seems  to  me  a  misleading  because 
vague,  if  not  altogether  false,  standard  of  progress. 
Those  who  use  it  insist  that  the  people  of  Japan  are  los- 
ing their  former  happiness  under  the  stress  of  new  con- 
ditions. Now  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  during  the 
"  Kyu-han  jidai,"  the  times  before  the  coming  in  of 
Western  waves  of  life,  the  farmers  were  a  simple,  un- 
sophisticated peoi)le;  living  from  month  to' month  with 
little  thought  or  anxiety.  They  may  be  said  to  have  been 
happy.  The  samurai  who  lived  wholly  on  the  bounty 
of  the  daimyo  led  of  course  a  tranquil  life,  at  least  so 
far  as  anxiety  or  toil  for  daily  rice  and  fish  was  con- 
cerned. As  the  fathers  had  lived  and  fought  and  died, 
so  did  the  sons.  To  a  large  extent  the  community  had 
all  things  in  common;  for  although  the  lortl  lived  in  rela- 
tive luxury,  yet  in  such  small  communities  tliere  never 
was  the  great  difference  between  classes  that  we  find  in 

52 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    PROGRESS  53 

modern  Europe  and  America.  As  a  rule  the  people 
were  fed,  if  there  was  food.  The  socialistic  principle 
was  practically  universal.  Especially  was  emphasis. laid 
on  kinship.  As  a  result,  save  among  the  outcast  classes, 
the  extremes  of  poverty  did  not  exist. 

Were  we  to  rest  our  inquiries  at  this  point,  we  might 
say  that  in  truth  the  Japanese  had  attained  the  summit 
of  progress ;  that  nothing  further  could  be  asked.  But 
pushing  our  way  further,  we  find  that  the  peace  and  quiet 
of  the  ordinary  classes  of  society  were  accompanied  by 
many  undesirable  features. 

Prominent  among  them  was  the  domineering  spirit  of 
the  military  class.  They  alone  laid  claim  to  personal 
rights,  and  popular  stories  are  full  of  the  free  and  furious 
ways  in  which  they  used  their  swords.  The  slightest 
ofifense  by  one  of  the  swordless  men  would  be  paid  for 
by  a  summary  act  of  the  two-sworded  swashbucklers, 
while  beggars  and  farmers  were  cut  down  without  com- 
punction, sometimes  simply  to  test  a  sword.  In  de- 
scribing those  times  one  man  said  to  me,  "  They  used  to' 
cut  ofif  the  heads  of  the  common  people  as  farmers  cut 
off  the  head  of  the  daikon  "  (a  variety  of  giant  radish). 
I  have  frequently  asked  my  Japanese  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances, whether,  in  view  of  the  increasing  difificul- 
ties  of  life  under  the  new  conditions,  the  country  would 
not  like  to  return  to  ancient  times  and  customs.  But 
none  have  been  ready  to  give  me  an  affirmative  reply. 
On  detailed  questioning  I  have  always  found  that  the 
surly,  domineering  methods,  the  absolutism  of  the  rulers, 
and  the  defenselessness  of  the  people  against  unjust 
arbitrary  superiors  would  not  be  submitted  to  by  a 
people  that  has  once  tasted  the  joy  arising  from  indi- 
vidual rights  and  freedom  and  the  manhood  that  comes 
from  just  laws  for  all. 

A  striking  feature  of  those  Japanese  who  are  un- 
changed by  foreign  ways  is  their  obsequious  manner 
toward  superiors  and  officials.  The  lordly  and  often- 
times ruthless  manner  of  the  rulers  has  naturally  cowed 
the  subject.  Whenever  the  higher  nobility  traveled,  the 
common  people  were  commanded  to  fall  on  the  ground 
in  obeisance  and  homage.     Failure  to  do  so  was  pun- 


54        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ishable  with  instant  death  at  the  hands  of  the  retainers 
who  accompanied  the  lord.  Dnrins^  my  first  stay  in 
Kumamoto  I  was  surprised  that  farmers,  coming  in 
from  the  country  on  horseback,  meeting  me  as  I  walked, 
invariably  got  down  from  their  horses,  unfastened  the 
handkerchiefs  from  their  heads,  and  even  took  off  their 
spectacles  if  there  were  nothing  else  removable.  These 
were  signs  of  respect  given  to  all  in  authority.  When 
my  real  status  began  to  be  generally  known,  these  signs 
of  politeness  gave  place  to  rude  staring.  It  is  difficult 
for  the  foreigner  to  appreciate  the  extremes  of  the  high- 
handed and  the  obsequious  spirit  which  were  developed 
by  the  ancient  form  of  government.  Yet  it  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  distinguish  between  the  evidently  genuine 
humility  of  the  non-military  classes  and  the  studied 
deference  of  the  dominant  samurai. 

Another  feature  of  the  old  order  of  things  was  the 
emptiness  of  the  lives  of  the  people.  Education  was 
rare.  Limited  to  the  samurai,  who  composed  but  a 
fraction  of  the  population,  it  was  by  no  means  universal 
even  among  them.  And  such  education  as  they  had  was 
confined  to  the  Chinese  classics.  Although  there  were 
schools  in  connection  with  some  of  the  temples,  the 
people  as  a  whole  did  not  learn  to  read  or  write.  These 
were  accomplishments  for  the  nobility  and  men  of 
/  leisure.  The  thoughts  of  the  people  were  circumscribed 
/  by  the  narrow  world  in  which  they  lived,  and  this 
(  allowed  but  an  occasional  glimpse  of  other  clans 
through  war  or  a  chance  traveler.  h\or,  in  those  times, 
freedom  of  travel  was  not  generally  allowed.  Each 
man,  as  a  rule,  lived  and  labored  and  died  where  he  was 
born.  The  military  classes  had  more  freedom.  But 
when  we  contrast  the  breadth  of  thought  and  outlook 
enjoyed  by  the  nation  to-day,  through  newspapers  and 
magazines,  with  the  outlook  and  knowledge  of  even  the 
most  progressive  and  learned  of  those  of  ancient  times, 
how  contracted  do  their  lives  ajipcar! 

A  third   feature  of  former  times  is  the  condition  of 

/  women   during  those  ages.     Eulogizers   of  Old   Japan 

not  only  seem  to  forget    that  working  classes  existed 

then,  but  also  tliat  women,  constituting  half  the  popula- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   PROGRESS  55 

tion,  were  essential  to  the  existence  of  the  nation. 
Though  allowing  more  freedom  than  was  given  to 
women  in  other  Oriental  nations,  Japan  did  not  grant 
such  liberty  as  is  essential  to  the  full  development  of  her 
powers.  "  Woman  is  a  man's  plaything  "  expresses  a 
view  still  held  in  Japan.  "  Woman's  sole  duty  is  the 
bearing  and  rearing  of  children  for  her  husband  "  is  the 
dominant  idea  that  has  determined  her  place  in  the 
family  and  in  the  state  for  hundreds  of  years.  That 
she  has  any  independent  interest  or  value  as  a  human 
being  has  not  entered  into  national  conception.  "  The 
way  in  which  they  are  treated  by  the  men  has  hitherto 
been  such  as  might  cause  a  pang  to  any  generous 
European  heart.  .  .  A  woman's  lot  is  summed  up  in 
what  is  termed  '  the  three  obediences/  obedience,  while 
yet  unmarried,  to  a  father;  obedience,  when  married,  to 
a  husband;  obedience,  when  widowed,  to  a  son.  At  the 
present  moment  the  greatest  duchess  or  marchioness  in 
the  land  is  still  her  husband's  drudge.  She  fetches  and 
carries  for  him,  bows  down  humbly  in  the  hall  when  my 
lord  sallies  forth  on  his  good  pleasure."  *  ''  The 
Greater  Learning  for  Women,"  by  Ekken  Kaibara 
(1630-1714),  an  eminent  Japanese  moralist,  is  the  name 
of  a  treatise  on  woman's  duties  which  sums  up  the  ideas 
common  in  Japan  upon  this  subject.  For  two  hundred 
years  or  more  it  has  been  used  as  a  text-book  in  the 
training  of  girls.  It  enjoins  such  abject  submission  of 
the  wife  to  her  husband,  to  her  parents-in-law,  and  to 
her  other  kindred  by  marriage,  as  no  self-respecting 
woman  of  Western  lands  could  for  a  moment  endure. 
Let  me  prove  this  through  a  few  quotations. 

"  A  woman  should  look  on  her  husband  as  if  he  were 
Heaven  itself  and  never  weary  of  thinking  how  she  may 
yield  to  her  husband,  and  thus  escape  celestial  castiga- 
tion."  "  Woman  must  form  no  friendships  and  no 
intimacy,  except  when  ordered  to  do  so  by  her  parents 
or  by  the  middleman.  Even  at  the  peril  of  her  life,  must 
she  harden  her  heart  like  a  rock  or  metal,  and  observe 
the  rules  of  propriety."  "  A  woman  has  no  particular 
lord.  She  must  look  to  her  husband  as  her  lord  and 
*  Prof.  B.  H.  Chamberlain. 


56         EVOLUTION    OF    THE  JAPANESE 

must  serve  him  with  all  reverence  and  worship,  not  de- 
spising or  thinking  lightly  of  him.  The  great  life-long 
duty  of  a  woman  is  obedience.  .  .  When  the  husband 
issues  his  instructions,  the  wife  must  never  disobey 
them.  .  .  Should  her  husband  be  roused  to  anger  at  any 
time,  she  must  obey  him,  with  fear  and  trembling." 
Not  one  word  in  all  these  many  and  specific  instructions 
hints  at  love  and  affection.  That  which  to  Western 
ears  is  the  sweetest  word  in  the  English  language,  the 
foundation  of  happiness  in  the  home,  the  only  true  bond 
between  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children — 
LOVE — does  not  once  appear  in  this  the  ideal  instruc- 
tion for  Japanese  women. 

Even  to  this  day  divorce  is  the  common  occurrence  in 
Japan.  According  to  Confucius  there  are  seven 
grounds  of  divorce:  disobedience,  barrenness,  lewd  con- 
duct, jealousy,  leprosy  or  any  other  foul  or  incurable 
disease,  too  much  talking,  and  thievishness.  "  In  plain 
English,  a  man  may  send  away  his  wife  whenever  he 
gets  tired  of  her." 

'Were  the  man's  duties  to  the  wife  and  to  her  parents 
as  minutely  described  and  insisted  on  as  are  those  of  the 
wife  to  the  husband  and  to  his  parents,  this  "  Greater 
Learning  for  Women  "  would  not  seem  so  deficient;  but 
such  is  not  the  case.  The  woman's  rights  are  few,  yet 
she  bears  her  lot  with  marvelous  patience.  Indeed,  she 
has  acquired  a  most  attractive  and  patient  and  modest 
behavior  despite,  or  is  it  because  of,  centuries  of  well- 
nigh  tyrannical  treatment  from  the  male  sex.  In  some 
important  respects  the  women  of  Japan  are  not  to  be 
excelled  by  those  of  any  other  land.  But  that  this  lot 
has  been  a  happy  one  I  cannot  conceive  it  possible  for  a 
European,  who  knows  the  meaning  of  love  or  home,  to 
contend.  The  single  item  of  one  divorce  for  every 
three  marriages  tells  a  tale  of  sorrow  and  heartache  that 
is  sad  to  contemplate.  Nor  does  this  include  those 
separations  where  tentative  marriage  takes  place  with 
a  view  to  learning  whether  the  parties  can  endure  living 
together.  I  have  known  several  such  cases.  Neither 
does  this  take  account  of  the  great  number  of  concu- 
bines that  may  l)c  found  in  the  homes  of  the  higher 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   PROGRESS  57 

classes.  A  concubine  often  makes  formal  divorce  quite 
superfluous. 

I  by  no  means  contend  that  the  women  of  Old  Japan 
were  all  and  always  miserable.  There  was  doubtless 
much  happiness  and  even  family  joy;  affection  between 
husband  and  wife  could  assuredly  have  been  found  in 
numberless  cases.  But  the  hardness  of  life  as  a  whole, 
the  low  position  held  by  woman  in  her  relations  to  man, 
her  lack  of  legal  rights,*  and  her  menial  position,  justify 
the  assertion  that  there  was  much  room  for  improve- 
ment. 

These  three  conspicuous  features  of  the  older  life  in 
Japan  help  us  to  reach  a  clear  conception  as  to  what 
constitutes  progress.  We  may  say  that  true  progress 
consists  in  that  continuous,  though  slow,  transformation 
of  the  structure  of  society  which,  while  securing  its  more 
thorough  organization,  brings  to  each  individual  the 
opportunity  of  a  larger,  richer,  and  fuller  life,  a  life  which 
increasingly  calls  forth  his  latent  powers  and  capacities. 
In  other  words,  progress  is  a  growing  organization  of 
society,  accompanied  by  a  growing  liberty  of  the  indi- 
vidual resulting  in  richness  and  fullness  of  life.  It  is 
not  primarily  a  question  of  unreflecting  happiness,  but 
a  question  of  the  wide  development  of  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Both  men  and  women  have  as  yet  un- 
measured latent  capacities,  which  demand  a  certain 
liberty,  accompanied  by  responsibilities  and  cares,  in 
order  for  their  development.  Intellectual  education  and 
a  wide  horizon  are  likewise  essential  to  the  production 
of  such  manhood  and  womanhood.  In  the  long  run 
this  is  seen  to  bring  a  deeper  and  a  more  lasting  happi- 
ness than  was  possible  to  the  undeveloped  man  or 
woman. 

The  question  of  progress  is  confused  and  put  on  a 
wrong  footing  when  the  consciousness  of  happiness  or 
unhappiness  is  made  the  primary  test.  The  happiness 
of  the  child  is  quite  apart  from  that  of  the  adult.  Re- 
gardless of  distressing  circumstances,  the  child  is  able 
to  laugh  and  play,  and  this  because  he  is  a  child ;  a  child 

*Only  since  the  coming  of  the  new  period  has  it  become  pos- 
sible for  a  woman  to  gain  a  divorce  from  her  husband. 


58         EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

in  his  ignorance  of  actual  life,  and  in  his  inability  to  per- 
ceive the  true  conditions  in  which  he  lives.  Not  other- 
wise, I  take  it,  was  the  happiness  of  the  vast  majority 
in  Old  Japan.  Theirs  was  the  happiness  of  ignorance 
and  simple,  undeveloped  lives.  Accustomed  to  tyranny, 
they  did  not  think  of  rebellion  against  it.  Familiar  with 
brutality  and  suffering,  they  felt  nothing  of  its  shame 
and  inhumanity.  The  sight  of  decapitated  bodies,  the 
torture  of  criminals,  the  despotism  of  husbands,  the 
cringing  obedience  of  the  rvded,  the  haughtiness  of  the 
rulers,  the  life  of  hard  toil  and  narrow  outlook,  were  all 
so  usual  that  no  thought  of  escape  from  such  an  order 
of  society  ever  suggested  itself  to  those  who  endured 
it. 

From  time  to  time  wise  and  just  rulers  did  indeed 
strive  to  introduce  principles  of  righteousness  into  their 
methods  of  government;  but  these  men  formed  the  ex- 
ception, not  the  rule.  They  were  individuals  and  not 
the  system  under  which  the  people  lived.  It  was  always 
a  matter  of  chance  whether  or  not  such  men  were  at 
the  head  of  affairs,  for  the  people  did  not  dream  of  the 
possibility  of  having  any  voice  in  their  selection.  The 
structure  of  society  was  and  always  had  been  absolute 
militarism.  Even  under  the  most  benevolent  rulers  the 
use  of  cruel  torture,  not  only  on  convicted  criminals,  but 
on  all  suspected  of  crime,  was  customary.  Those  in 
authority  might  personally  set  a  good  example,  but  they 
did  not  modify  the  system.  They  owned  not  only  the 
soil  but  practically  the  laborers  also,  for  these  could  not 
leave  their  homes  in  search  of  others  that  were  better. 
They  were  serfs,  if  not  slaves,  and  the  system  did  not 
tend  to  raise  the  standard  of  life  or  education,  of  man- 
hood or  w^omanhood  among  the  people.  The  happi- 
ness of  the  people  in  such  times  was  due  in  part  to  their 
essential  inhumanity  of  heart  and  lack  of  sympathy  with 
suffering  and  sorrow.  Each  individual  bore  his  own 
sorrow  and  pain  alone.  The  community,  as  such,  did 
not  distress  itself  over  individuals  who  suffered.  Sym- 
pathy, in  its  full  meaning,  was  unknown  in  Old  Jajian. 
The  barbarous  custom  of  casting  out  the  leper  from  the 
home,  to  wander  a  lonely  exile,  living  on  the  charity  of 


THE    PROBLEM    OF  PROGRESS  59 

strangers,  is  not  unknown  even  to  this  day.  We  are  told 
that  in  past  times  the  "  people  were  governed  by  such 
strong  aversion  to  the  sight  of  sickness  that  travelers 
were  often  left  to  die  by  the  roadside  from  thirst, 
hunger,  or  disease;  and  householders  even  went  the 
length  of  thrusting  out  of  doors  and  abandoning  to 
utter  destitution  servants  who  suffered  from  chronic 
maladies."  So  universal  was  this  heartlessness  that  the 
government  at  one  time  issued  proclamations  against 
the  practices  it  allowed.  "  Whenever  an  epidemic 
occurred  the  number  of  deaths  was  enormous."  Seven 
men  of  the  outcast,  "  the  Eta,"  class  were  authoritatively 
declared  equal  in  value  to  one  common  man.  Beggars 
were  technically  called  "  hi-nin,"  "  not  men." 

Those  who  descant  on  the  happiness  of  Old  Japan 
commit  the  great  error  of  overlooking  all  these  sad 
(features  of  life,  and  of  fixing  their  attention  exclusively 
ion  the  one  feature  of  the  childlike,  not  to  say  childish, 
lightness  of  heart  of  the  common  people.  Such  writers 
■are  thus  led  to  pronounce  the  past  better  than  thd 
present  time.  They  also  overlook  the  profound  happi- 
•ness  and  widespread  prosperity  of  the  present  era. 
Trade,  commerce,  manufactures,  travel,  the  freest  of 
intercommunication,  newspapers,  and  international  re- 
lations, have  brought  into  life  a  richness  and  a  fullness 
that  were  then  unknown.  But  in  addition,  the  people 
now  enjoy  a  security  of  personal  interests,  a  possession 
of  personal  rights  and  property,  and  a  personal  liberty, 
that  make  life  far  miore  Vs^orthy  and  profoundly  enjoy- 
able, even  while  they  bring  responsibilities  and  duties 
and  not  a  few  anxieties.  This  explains  the  fact  that  no 
Japanese  has  expressed  to  me  the  slightest  desire  to 
abandon  the  present  and  return  to  the  life  and  condi- 
tions of  Old  Japan. 

Let  me  repeat,  therefore,  with  all  possible  emphasis, 
that  the  problem  of  progress  is  not  primarily  one  of 
increasing  light-heartedness,  pure  and  simple,  nor  yet 
a  problem  of  racial  unification  or  of  political  centraliza- 
tion ;  it  is  rather  a  problem  of  so  developing  the  structure 
of  society  that  the  individual  may  have  the  fullest  oppor-^.J  ^  ^rj 
tunity  for  development. 


6o  EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

The  measure  of  progress  is  not  the  degree  of  racial 
unification,  of  political  centralization,  or  of  unrcflective 
happiness,  but  rather  the  degree  and  the  extent  of  indi- 
vidual personality.  Racial  unification,  political  centrali- 
zation, and  increasing  happiness  are  in  the  attainment  of 
progress,  but  they  are  not  to  be  viewed  as  sufficient 
ends.  Personality  can  alone  be  that  end.  The  wide 
development  of  personality,  therefore,  is  at  once  the 
goal  and  the  criterion  of  progress. 


IV 

THE  METHOD  OF  PROGRESS 

PROGRESS  as  an  ideal  is  quite  modern  in  its  origin. 
For  although  the  ancients  were  progressing,  they 
did  it  unconsciously,  blindly,  stumbling  on  it  by 
chance,  forced  to  it,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  struggle  for 
existence.  True  of  the  ancient  civilizations  of  Europe 
and  Western  Asia  and  Africa,  this  is  emphatically  true 
of  the  Orient.  Here,  so  far  from  seeking  to  progress, 
the  avowed  aim  has  been  not  to  progress;  the  set  pur- 
pose has  been  to  do  as  the  fathers  did;  to  follow  their 
example  even  in  customs  and  rites  whose  meaning  has 
been  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  the  past.  This  blind  ad- 
herence was  the  boast  of  those  who  called  themselves 
religious.  They  strove  to  fulfill  their  duties  to  their 
ancestors. 

Under  such  conditions  how  was  progress  possible? 
And  how  has  it  come  to  pass  that,  ruled  by  this  ideal 
until  less  than  fifty  years  ago,  Japan  is  now  facing  quite 
the  other  way?  The  passion  of  the  nation  to-day  is  to 
make  the  greatest  possible  progress  in  every  direction. 
Here  is  an  anomaly,  a  paradox;  progress  made  in  spite 
of  its  rejection;  and,  recently,  a  total  volte-face.  How 
shall  we  explain  this  paradox? 

In  our  chapter  on  the  Principles  of  National  Evolu- 
tion,* we  see  that  the  first  step  in  progress  was  made 
through  the  development  of  enlarging  communities  by 
means  of  extending  boundaries  and  hardening  customs. 
We  see  that,  on  reaching  this  stage,  the  great  problem 
was  so  to  break  the  "  cake  of  custom  "  as  to  give  liberty 
to  individuals  whereby  to  secure  the  needful  variations. 
We  do  not  consider  how  this  was  to  be  accomplished. 
We  merely  show  that,  if  further  progress  was  to  be 
*  Chapter  xxix.  Some  may  care  to  read  this  chapter  at  this  point. 
6i 


62        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

made,  it  could  only  be  through  the  development  of  the 
individualistic  principle  to  which  we  give  the  more  exact 
name  communo-individualism.  This  problem  as  to 
how  the  "  cake  of  custom  "  is  successfully  broken  must 
now  engage  our  attention. 

Mr.  Bagehot  contends  that  this  process  consisted, 
as  a  matter  of  history,  in  the  establishment  of  govern- 
ment by  discussion.  Matters  of  principle  came  to  be 
talked  over;  the  desirability  of  this  or  that  measure  was 
submitted  to  the  people  for  their  approval  or  disap- 
proval. This  method  served  to  stimulate  definite  and 
practical  thought  on  a  wide  scale;  it  substituted  the 
thinking  of  the  many  for  the  thinking  of  the  few;  it 
stimulated  independent  thinking  and  consequently  in- 
dependent action.  This  is,  however,  but  another  way 
of  saying  that  it  stimulated  variation.  A  government 
whose  action  was  determined  after  wide  discussion 
would  be  peculiarly  fitted  to  take  advantage  of  all  use- 
ful variations  of  ideas  and  practice.  Experience  shows, 
he  continues,  that  the  difficulty  of  developing  a  "  cake 
of  custom  "  is  far  more  easily  surmounted  than  that 
of  developing  government  by  discussion;  /.  c,  that  it  is 
far  less  difficult  to  develop  communalism  than  com- 
muno-individualism. The  family  of  arrested  civiliza- 
tions, of  which  China  and  India  and  Japan,  until  re- 
cent times,  are  examples,  were  caught  in  the  net  of 
what  had  once  been  the  source  of  their  progress.  The 
tyranny  of  their  laws  and  customs  was  such  that  all  in- 
dividual variations  were  nipped  in  the  bud.  They  failed 
to  progress  because  they  failed  to  develop  variations. 
And  they  failed  in  this  because  they  did  not  have  gov- 
ernment by  discussion. 

No  one  will  dispute  the  importance  of  Mr.  Bagehot's 
contribution  to  this  subject.  But  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  he  has  pointed  out  the  full  reason  for  the  diffi- 
culty of  breaking  the  "  cake  of  custom  "  or  manifested 
the  real  root  of  progress.  To  attain  progress  in  the  full 
sense,  not  merely  of  an  oligarchy  or  a  caste,  but  of  the 
whole  people,  there  must  not  only  be  government  by 
discussion,  but  the  responsibilities  of  the  government 
must  be  shared  more  or  less  fully  by  all  the  governed. 


THE   METHOD   OF   PROGRESS  63 

History,  however,  shows  that  this  cannot  take  place 
until  a  conception  of  intrinsic  manhood  and  womanhood 
has  arisen,  a  conception  which  emphasizes  their  infinite 
and  inherent  worth.  This  conception  is  not  produced  by 
government  by  discussion,  while  government  by  discus- 
sion is  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  wide  acceptance 
of  this  conception.  It  is  therefore  the  real  root  of  prog- 
ress. 

As  I  look  over  the  history  of  the  Orient,  I  find  no 
tendency  to  discover  the  inherent  worth  of  man  or  to 
introduce  the  principle  of  government  by  discussion. 
Left  to  themselves,  I  see  no  probability  that  any  of 
these  nations  would  ever  have  been  able  to  break  the 
thrall  of  their  customs,  and  to  reach  tnat  stage  of  de- 
velopment in  which  common  individuals  could  be  trusted 
with  a  large  measure  of  individual  liberty.  Though  I 
can  conceive  that  Japan  might  have  secured  a  thorough- 
going political  centralization  under  the  old  regime,  I 
cannot  see  that  that  centralization  would  have  been  ac- 
companied by  growing  liberty  for  the  individual  or  by 
such  constitutional  rights  for  the  common  man  as  he  ^'"" 
enjoys  to-day.  Whatever  progress  she  might  have  g/U^f^^'^ 
made  in  the  direction  of  nationality  it  would  still  have 
been  a  despotism.  The  common  man  would  have  re- 
mained a  helpless  and  hopeless  slave.  Art  might  have  ^1  u/"^'^'^^' 
prospered;  the  people  might  have  remained  simple- 
minded  and  relatively  contented.  But  they  could  not 
have  attained  that  freedom  and  richness  of  life,  that 
personality,  which  we  saw  in  our  last  chapter  to  be  the 
criterion  and  goal  of  true  progress. 

If  the  reader  judges  the  above  contention  correct  and 
agrees  with  the  writer  that  the  conception  of  the  in- 
herent value  of  a  human  being  could  not  arise  spon- 
taneously in  Japan,  he  will  conclude  that  the  progress    .     ^^.^J* 
of  Japan  depended  on  securing  this  important  concep-  '^Y^^x,u-<_, 
tion  from  without.     Exactly  this  has  taken  place.     By  J^^^  __^^ 
her  thorough-going  abandonment  of  the  feudal  social       /         Q 
order  and  adoption  of  the  constitutional  and  representa-     V^ 
tive  government  of  Christendom,  whether  she   recog-  "P  Vy^-^^,"" 
nizes  it  or  not,  she  has  accepted  the  principles  of  the  in-  W 

herent  worth  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  as  well  as       .  ,y^. .  ^ 


64        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

government  by  discussion.  Japan  has  thus,  by  imita- 
tion rather  than  by  origination,  entered  on  the  path  of 
endless  progress. 

So  important,  however,  is  the  step  recently  taken 
that  further  analysis  of  this  method  of  progress  is  de- 
sirable for  its  full  comprehension.  We  have  already 
noted  quite  briefly*  how  Japan  was  supplied  by  the  West 
wath  the  ideal  of  national  unity  and  the  material  instru- 
ments essential  to  its  attainment.  In  connection  with 
the  high  development  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  these  two 
elements  of  progress,  the  ideal  and  the  material,  need 
further  consideration. 

We  note  in  the  first  place  that  both  begin  with  imi- 
tation, but  if  progress  is  to  be  real  and  lasting,  both 
must  grow  to  independence. 

The  first  and  by  far  the  most  important  is  the  psychi- 
cal, the  introduction  of  new  ideas.  So  long  as  the  old, 
familiar  ideas  hold  sway  over  the  mind  of  a  nation,  there 
is  little  or  no  stimulus  to  comparison  and  discussion. 
Stagnation  is  well-nigh  complete.  But  let  new  ideas 
be  so  introduced  as  to  compel  attention  and  comprehen- 
sion, and  the  mind  spontaneously  awakes  to  wonderful 
activity.  The  old  stagnation  is  no  longer  possible.  Dis- 
cussion is  started;  and  in  the  end  something  must  take 
place,  even  if  the  new  ideas  are  not  accepted  wholly 
or  even  in  part.  But  they  will  not  gain  attention  if  pre- 
sented simply  in  the  abstract,  unconnected  with  real 
life.  They  must  bring  evidence  that,  if  accepted  and 
lived,  they  will  be  of  practical  use,  that  they  will  give 
added  power  to  the  nation. 

Exactly  this  took  place  in  1854  when  Admiral  Perry 
demanded  entrance  to  Japan.  The  people  suddenly 
awoke  from  their  sleep  of  two  and  a  half  centuries  to 
find  that  new  nations  had  arisen  since  they  closed  their 
eyes,  nations  among  which  new  sets  of  ideas  had  been 
at  work,  giving  them  a  power  wholly  unknown  to  the 
Orient  and  even  mysterious  to  it.  Those  ideas  were 
concerned,  not  alone  with  the  making  of  guns,  the  build- 
ing of  ships,  the  invention  of  machinery,  the  taming 
and  using  of  the  forces  of  nature,  but  also  with  methods 
*  Cf.  chapter  ii. 


THE   METHOD    OF   PROGRESS  65 

of  government  and  law,  with  strange  notions,  too,  about 
religion  and  duty,  about  the  family  and  the  individual, 
which  the  foreigners  said  were  of  inestimable  value  and 
importance.  It  needed  but  a  few  years  of  intercourse 
\yith  Western  peoples  to  convince  the  most  conserva- 
tive that  unless  the  Japanese  themselves  could  gain  the 
secret  of  their  power,  either  by  adopting  their  weapons 
or  their  civilization,  they  themselves  must  fade  away  "^ 
before  the  stronger  nations.  The  need  of  self-preser- 
vation was  the  first  great  stimulus  that  drove  new 
thoughts  into  unwilling  brains. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Japanese  were  right     f^y-  'i^-' 
in  this  analysis  of  the  situation.     Had  they  insisted  on          k>^- . 
maintaining  their  old  methods  of  national  life  and  social    ^^^^JuJ-t.-: 
order  and  ancient  customs,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to    ''^ 
the   result.      Africa   and    India   in   recent   decades   and 
China  and  Korea  in  the  most  recent  years  tell  the  story 
all  too  clearly.     Those  who  know  the  course  of  treaty 
conferences   and   armed   collisions,   as   at   Shimonoseki 
and  Kagoshima  between  Japan  and  the  foreign  nations, 
have  no  doubt  that  Japan,  divided  into  clans  and  per- 
sisting in  her  love  of  feudalism,  would  long  since  have 
become  the  territory  of  some  European  Power.     She 
was  saved  by  the  possession  of  a  remarkable  combina- 
tion   of    national    characteristics, — the    powers    of    ob- 
servation, of  appreciation,  and  of  imitation.     In  a  word, 
her  sensitiveness  to  her  environment  and  her  readiness 
to  respond  to  it  proved  to  be  her  salvation. 

But  the  point  on  which  I  wish  to  lay  special  emphasis 
is  that  the  prime  element  of  the  form  in  which  the  de- 
liverance came  was  through  the  acquisition  of  numerous 
new  ideas.    These  were  presented  by  persons  who  thor- 
oughly  believed   in    them   and   who    admittedly   had   a 
power    not    possessed    by    the    Japanese    themselves. 
Though  unable  to  originate  these  ideas,  the  Japanese    f^^  ^^"^"^'^ 
yet   proved   themselves   capable   of   understanding   and    ;     ^.  N 
appreciating  them — in  a  measure  at  least.     They  were   -^   .  j^ 
at  first  attracted  to  that  which  related  chiefly  to  the  ex-     t  ^^  '"^ 
ternals^  of  civilization,  to  that  which  would  contribute 
immediately  to  the  complete  political  centralization  of 
the  nation.    With  great  rapidity  they  adopted  Western. 


66         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ideas  about  warfare  and  weapons.  They  sent  their 
young  men  abroad  to  study  the  civiHzation  of  the  for- 
eign nations.  At  great  expense  they  also  employed 
many  foreigners  to  teach  them  in  their  own  land  the 
things  they  wished  to  learn.  Thus  have  the  Japanese 
mastered  so  rapidly  the  details  of  those  ideas  which, 
less  than  fifty  years  ago,  were  not  only  strange  but 
odious  to  them. 

Under  their  influence,  the  conditions  which  history 
shows  to  be  the  most  conducive  to  the  continuous 
growth  of  civilization  have  been  definitely  accepted  and 
adopted  by  the  people,  namely,  popular  rights,  the  lib- 
erty of  individuals  to  differ  from  the  past  so  far  as  this 
does  not  interfere  with  national  unity,  and  the  direct 
responsibility  and  relation  of  each  individual  to  the  na- 
tion without  any  mediating  group.  These  rights  and 
liberities  are  secured  to  the  individual  by  a  constitution 
and  by  laws  enacted  by  representative  legi^fetures. 
Government  by  discussion  has  been  fairly  inaugurated. 

During  these  years  of  change  the  effort  has  been  to 
leave  the  old  social  order  as  undisturbed  as  possible.  For 
example,  it  was  hoped  that  the  reorganization  of  the 
military  and  naval  forces  of  the  Empire  would  be  suf- 
ficient without  disturbing  the  feudal  order  and  without 
abolishing  the  feudal  states.  But  this  was  soon  found 
ineffectual.  For  a  time  it  was  likewise  thought  that  the 
adoption  of  Western  methods  of  government  might  be 
made  without  disturbing  the  old  religious  ideas  and 
without  removing  the  edicts  against  Christianity.  But 
experience  soon  showed  that  the  old  civilization  was  a 
unit.  No  part  could  be  vitally  modified  without  affecting 
the  whole  structure.  Having  knocked  over  one  block  in 
the  long  row  that  made  up  their  feudal  social  order,  it 
was  found  that  each  successive  block  was  touched  ami 
fell,  until  nothing  was  left  standing  as  before.  It  was 
found  also  that  the  old  ideas  of  education,  of  travel,  of 
jurisprudence,  of  torture  and  punishment,  of  social 
ranks,  of  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the  state,  of 
the  state  to  the  family,  and  of  religion  to  the  family, 
were  more  or  less  defective  and  unsuited  to  the  new 
civilization.     Before  this  new  movement    all  obstructive 


THE    METHOD    OF  PROGRESS  67 

ideas,  however,  sanctioned  by  antiquity,  have  had  to  give 
way.  The  Japanese  of  to-day  look,  as  it  were,  upon  a 
new  earth  and  a  new  heaven.  Those  of  forty  years 
ago  would  be  amazed,  not  only  at  the  enormous  changes 
in  the  externals,  life  and  government,  but  also  at  the 
transformation  which  has  overtaken  every  element  of 
the  older  civilization.  Putting  it  rather  strongly,  it  is 
now  not  the  son  who  obeys  the  father,  but  the  father 
the  ?on.  The  rulers  no  longer  command  the  people, 
but  the  people  command  the  rulers.  The  people  do 
not  now  toil  to  support  the  state;  but  the  state  toils  to 
protect  the  people. 

Whether  the  incoming  of  these  new  ideas  and  prac- 
tices be  thought  to  constitute  progress  or  not  will  de- 
pend on  one's  view  of  the  aim  of  life.  If  this  be  as 
maintained  in  the  previous  chapter,  then  surely  the 
transformation  of  Japan  must  be  counted  progress. 
That,  however,  to  which  I  call  attention  is  the  fact  that 
the  essential  requisite  of  progress  is  the  attainment  of 
new  ideas,  whatever  be  their  source.  Japan  has  not  only 
taken  up  a  great  host  of  these,  but  in  doing  so  she  has 
adopted  a  social  structure  to  stimulate  the  continuous 
production  of  new  ideas,  through  the  development  of 
individuality.  She  is  thus  in  the  true  line  of  continu- 
ously progressive  evolution.  Imitating  the  stronger 
nations,  she  has  introduced  into  her  system  the  life- 
giving  blood  of  free  discussion,  popular  education,  and 
universal  individual  rights  and  liberty.  In  a  word,  she 
has  begun  to  be  an  individualistic  nation.  She  has  intro- 
duced a  social  order  fitted  to  a  wide  development  of  per- 
sonality. 

The  importance  of  the  second  line  of  progress,  the 
physical,  would  seem  to  be  too  obvious  to  call  for  any 
detailed  consideration.  But  so  much  has  been  said  by 
both  graceful  and  able  writers  on  Japan  as  to  the  ad- 
vantages she  enjoys  from  her  simple  non-mechanical 
civilization,  and  the  mistake  she  is  making  in  adopting 
the  mechanical  civilization  of  the  West,  that  it  may  not 
be  amiss  to  dwell  for  a  few  moments  upon  it.  I  wish 
to  show  that  the  second  element  of  progress  consists  in 
the  increasing  use  of  mechanisms. 


68         EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

The  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Japan  hardly  finds  words 
wherewith  sufiiciently  to  praise  the  simphcity  of  her 
pre-Meiji  civihzation.  No  furniture  brings  confusion 
to  the  room;  no  machinery  distresses  the  ear  with  its 
groanings  or  the  eye  with  its  unsighthness.  Xo  fac- 
tories blacken  the  sky  with  smoke.  No  trains  screech- 
ing through  the  towns  and  cities  disturb  sleepers  and 
frighten  babies.  The  simple  bed  on  the  floor,  the  straw 
sandal  on  the  foot,  wooden  chopsticks  in  place  of 
knives  and  forks,  the  small  variety  of  foods  and  of  cook- 
ing utensils,  the  simple,  homespun  cotton  clothing,  the 
fascinating  homes,  so  small  and  neat  and  clean — in 
truth  all  that  pertains  to  Old  Japan  finds  favor  in  the 
eyes  of  the  enthusiastic  admirer  from  the  Occident. 
One  such  writer,  in  an  elaborate  paper  intended  to  set 
forth  the  superiority  of  the  original  Japanese  to  the 
Occidental  civilization,  uses  the  following  language: 
"  Ability  to  live  without  furniture,  without  impedimenta, 
with  the  least  possible  amount  of  neat  clothing,  shows 
more  than  the  advantage  held  by  the  Japanese  race  in 
the  struggle  of  life;  it  shows  also  the  real  chajacter  of 
some  of  the  weaknesses  in  our  own  civilization.  It 
forces  reflection  upon  the  useless  multiplicity  of  our 
daily  wants.  We  must  have  meat  and  bread  and  butter; 
glass  windows  and  fire;  hats,  white  shirts,  and  woolen 
underwear;  boots  and  shoes;  trunks,  bags,  and  boxes; 
bedsteads,  mattresses,  sheets,  and  blankets ;  all  of  which 
a  Japanese  can  do  without,  and  is  really  better  ofif  with- 
out." *  Surely  one  finds  much  of  truth  in  this,  and  there 
is  no  denying  the  charm  of  the  simpler  civilization,  but 
the  closing  phrase  of  the  quotation  is  the  assumption 
without  discussion  of  the  disputed  point.  Are  the  Jap- 
anese really  better  off  without  these  implements  of 
Western  civilization?  Evidently  they  themselves  do 
not  think  so.  For,  in  glancing  through  the  list  as 
given  by  the  writer  quoted,  one  realizes  the  extent  of 
Japanese  adoption  of  these  Western  devices.  Hardly 
an  article  but  is  used  in  Japan,  and  certainly  with  the 
su]iposition  of  the  purchaser  that  it  adds  cither  to  his 
health  or  his  comfort.  In  witness  are  the  luuulreds  of 
*"  Kokoro,"  by  L.  llcarii,  ]).  31. 


THE    METHOD    OF    PROGRESS  69 

thousands  of  straw  hats,  the  glass  windows  everywhere, 
and  the  meat-shops  in  each  town  and  city  of  the  Em- 
pire. The  charm  of  a  foreign  fashion  is  not  sufficient 
explanation  for  the  rapidly  spreading  use  of  foreign 
inventions. 

That  there  are  no  useless  or  even  evil  features  in  our 
Western  civilization  is  not  for  a  moment  contended.  The 
stilT  starched  shirt  may  certainly  be  asked  to  give  an 
account  of  itself  and  justify  its  continued  existence,  if  it 
can.  But  I  think  the  proposition  is  capable  of  defense 
that  the  vast  majority  of  the  implements  of  our  Occi- 
dental civilization  have  their  definite  place  and  value, 
either  in  contributing  directly  to  the  comfort  and  happi- 
ness of  their  possessor,  or  in  increasing  his  health  and 
strength  and  general  mental  and  physical  power.  What 
is  it  that  makes  the  Occidental  longer-lived  than  the 
Japanese?  Why  is  he  healthier?  Why  is  he  more  in- 
telligent? Why  is  he  a  more  developed  personality? 
Why  are  his  children  more  energetic?  Or,  reversing 
the  questions,  why  has  the  population  of  Japan  been 
increasing  with  leaps  and  bounds  since  the  introduction 
of  Western  civilization  and  medical  science?  Why  is 
the  rising  generation  so  free  from  pockmarks?  Why 
is  the  number  of  the  blind  steadily  diminishing?  Why 
are  mechanisms  multiplying  so  rapidly — the  jinrikisha, 
the  railroads,  the  roads,  the  waterworks  and  sewers, 
the  chairs,  the  tables,  the  hats  and  umbrellas,  lamps, 
clocks,  glass  windows  and  shoes?  A  hundred  simi- 
lar questions  might  be  asked,  to  which  no  definite  an- 
swers are  needful. 

Further  discussion  of  details  seems  unnecessary.  Yet 
the  full  significance  of  this  point  can  hardly  be  appre- 
ciated without  a  perception  of  the  great  principle  that 
underlies  it.  The  only  way  in  which  man  has  become 
and  continues  to  be  increasingly  superior  to  animals  is 
in  his  use  of  mechanisms.  The  animal  does  by  brute 
force  what  man  accomplishes  by  various  devices.  The 
inventiveness  of  different  races  differs  vastly.  But 
everywhere,  the  most  advanced  are  the  most  powerful. 
Take  the  individual  man  of  the  more  developed  race 
and  separate  him  from  his  tools  and  machines,  and  it 


70        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

is  doubtless  true  that  he  cannot  in  some  selected  points 
compete  with  an  individual  of  a  less  developed  race. 
But  let  ten  thousand  men  of  the  higher  development 
compete  with  ten  thousand  of  the  lower,  each  using  the 
mechanisms  under  his  control,  and  can  there  be  any 
doubt  as  to  which  is  the  superior? 

In  other  words,  the  method  of  human  progress  con- 
sists, in  no  small  degree,  in  the  progressive  mastery  of 
nature,  first  through  understanding  her  and  then 
through  the  use  of  her  immense  forces  by  means  of  suit- 
able mechanisms.  All  the  machines  and  furniture,  and 
tools  and  clothing,  and  houses  and  canned  foods,  and 
shoes  and  boots,  and  railroads  and  telegraph  lines,  and 
typewriters  and  watches,  and  the  ten  thousand  other  so- 
(  called  "  impedimenta  "  of  the  Occidental  civilization  are 
but  devices  whereby  Western  man  has  sought  to  in- 
crease his  health,  his  wealth,  his  knowledge,  his  com- 
fort, his  independence,  his  capacity  of  travel — in  a  word, 
his  well-being.  Through  these  mechanisms  he  masters 
nature.  He  extracts  a  rich  living  from  nature;  he  an- 
nihilates time  and  space;  he  defies  the  storms;  he  tun- 
nels the  mountains;  he  extracts  precious  ores  and 
metals  from  the  rock-ribbed  hills;  with  a  magic  touch 
he  loosens  the  grip  of  the  elements  and  makes  them 
surrender  their  gold,  their  silver,  and,  more  precious 
still,  their  iron;  with  these  he  builds  his  spacious  cities 
and  parks,  his  railroads  and  ocean  steamers;  he  travels 
the  whole  world  around,  fearing  neither  beast  nor  alierr 
man;  all  are  subject  to  his  command  and  will.  He  in- 
vestigates and  knows  the  constitution  of  stellar  worlds 
no  less  than  that  of  the  world  in  which  he  lives.  By  his 
instruments  he  explores  the  infinite  depths  of  heaven 
and  the  no  less  infinite  depths  of  the  microscopic  world. 
All  these  reviled  "  impedimenta  "  thus  bring  to  the  race 
that  has  them  a  wealth  of  life  both  physical  and  psychi- 
cal, practical  and  ideal,  that  is  otherwise  unattainable. 
I  By  them  he  gains  and  gives  external  expression  to  the 
reality  of  his  inner  nature,  his  freedom,  liis  juM'Sonality. 
True,  instead  of  bringing  health  and  long  life,  knowledge 
and  deep  enjoyment,  they  may  become  the  means  of  bit- 
terest curses.     But  the  lesson  to  learn  from  this  fact 


THE    METHOD    OF    PROGRESS  71 

is  how  to  use  these  powers  aright,  not  how  to  forbid 
their  use  altogether.  They  are  not  to  be  branded  as 
hindrances  to  progress. 

The  defect  of  Occidental  civilization  to-day  is  not  ^ 
its  multiplicity  of  machinery,  but  the  defective  view  that  \ 
still  blinds  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  as  to  the  true  na-  -^ 
ture  and  the  legitimate  goal  of  progress.  Individual, 
selfish  happiness  is  still  the  ideal  of  too  many  men  and 
women  to  permit  of  the  ideal  which  carries  the 
Golden  Rule  into  the  markets  and  factories,  into  the 
politics  of  parties  and  nations,  which  is  essential  to  the 
attainment  of  the  highest  progress.  But  no  one  who 
casts  his  eyes  over  the  centuries  of  struggle  and  effort 
through  which  man  has  been  slowly  working  his  way 
upward  from  the  rank  of  a  beast  to  that  of  a  man,  can 
doubt  that  progress  has  been  made.  The  worth  of 
character  has  been  increasingly  seen  and  its  possession 
desired.  The  true  end  of  effort  and  development  was 
never  more  clear  than  it  is  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Never  before  were  the  conditions  of  progress 
so  bright,  not  only  for  the  favored  few  in  one  or  two 
lands,  but  for  the  multitudes  the  world  over.  Isolation 
and  separation  have  passed  from  this  world  forever. 
Free  social  intercourse  between  the  nations  permits  wide 
dissemination  of  ideas  and  their  application  to  practical  n  ;^ 

life  in  the  form  of  social  organization  and  mechanical  ^cU^'t^    c,^-^ 
invention.     This  makes  it  possible  for  nations  more  or    ik"^'"'^^^^ 
less  backward  in  "social  and  civilizational  development      iv^'*^^^''*'^ 
to  gain  in  a  relatively  short  time  the  advantages  won       r     aM 
by  advanced  nations   through   ages   of  toil  and  under      ^ 
favoring  circumstances.     Nation  thus  stimulates  nation, 
each  furnishing  the  other  with  important  variations  in 
ideas,    customs,    institutions,    and    mechanisms    resulting 
from  long-continued  divergent  evolution.     The  advan- 
tages  slowly  gained  by  advanced  peoples  speedily  ac- 
crues  through   social    heredity   to   any   backward   race 
really  desiring  to  enter  the  social  heritage. 

Thus  does  the  paradox  of  Japan's  recent  progress  be- 
come thoroughly  intelligible. 


JAPANESE    SENSITIVENESS    TO 
ENVIRONMENT 

WITH  this  chapter  we  begin  a  more  detailed 
study  of  Japanese  social  and  psychic  evolution. 
We  shall  take  up  the  various  characteristics 
of  the  race  and  seek  to  account  for  them,  show- 
ing their  origin  in  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  so- 
cial order  which  so  long  prevailed  in  Japan.  This 
is  a  study  of  Japanese  psychogenesis.  The  ques- 
tion to  which  we  shall  continually  return  is  whether  or 
not  the  characteristic  under  consideration  is  inherent 
and  congenital  and  therefore  inevitable.  Not  only  our 
interpretation  of  Japanese  evolution,  past,  present,  and 
future,  but  also  our  understanding  of  the  essential  na- 
ture of  social  evolution  in  general,  depends  upon  the 
answer  to  this  question. 

We  naturally  begin  with  that  characteristic  of  Jap- 
anese nature  which  would  seem  to  be  more  truly  con- 
genital than  any  other  to  be  mentioned  later.  I  refer 
to  their  sensitiveness  to  environment.  More  quickly 
than  most  races  do  the  Japanese  seem  to  perceive  and 
adapt  themselves  to  changed  conditions. 

The  history  of  the  past  thirty  years  is  a  prolonged 
illustration  of  this  characteristic.  The  desire  to  imitate 
foreign  nations  was  not  a  real  reason  for  the  overthrow 
of  feudalism,  but  there  was,  rather,  a  more  or  less  con- 
scious feeling,  rapidly  pervading  the  whole  people,  that 
the  feudal  system  would  be  unable  to  maintain  the  na- 
tional integrity.  As  intimated,  the  matter  was  not  so 
much  reasoned  out  as  felt.  But  such  a  vast  illustration 
is  more  difficult  to  appreciate  than  some  individual  in- 
stances, of  which  I  have  noted  several. 

During  a  conversation  with  Drs.  I-'orsythe  and  Dale, 
72 


SENSITIVENESS    TO    ENVIRONMENT      73 

of  Cambridge,  England,  I  asked  particularly  as  to  their 
experience  with  the  Japanese  students  who  had  been 
there  to  study.  They  both  remarked  on  the  fact  that  all 
Japanese  students  were  easily  influenced  by  those  with 
whom  they  customarily  associated ;  so  much  so  that, 
within  a  short  time,  they  acquired  not  only  the  cut  of  coats 
and  trousers,  but  also  the  manner  and  accent,  of  those 
with  whom  they  lived.  It  was  amusing,  they  said,  to  see 
what  transformations  were  wrought  in  those  who  went 
to  the  Continent  for  their  long  vacations.  From 
France  they  returned  with  marked  "French  manners  and 
tones  and  clothes,  while  from  Germany  they  brought 
the  distinctive  marks  of  German  stiffness  in  manner  and 
general  bearing.  It  was  noted  as  still  more  curious  that 
the  same  student  would  illustrate  both  variations,  pro- 
vided he  spent  one  summer  in  Germany  and  another 
in  France. 

Japanese  sensitiveness  is  manifested  in  many  unex- 
pected ways.  An  observant  missionary  lady  once  re- 
marked that  she  had  often  wondered  how  such  unruly, 
self-willed  children  as  grow  up  under  Japanese  training, 
or  its  lack,  finally  become  such  respectable  members  of 
society.  She  concluded  that  instead  of  being  punished 
out  of  their  misbehaviors  they  were  laughed  out  of 
them.  The  children  are  constantly  told  that  if  they  do 
so  and  so  they  will  be  laughed  at — a  terrible  thing. 

The  fear  of  ridicule  has  thus  an  important  sociological* 
function  in  maintaining  ethical  standards.  Its  power' 
may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  in  ancient  times  when 
a  samurai  gave  his  note  to  return  a  borrowed  sum,  the 
only  guarantee  aflfixed  was  the  permission  to  be  laughed 
at  in  public  in  case  of  failure.  The  Japanese  young 
man  who  is  making  a  typewritten  copy  of  these  pages 
for  me  says  that,  when  still  young,  he  heard  an  address 
to  children  which  he  still  remembers.  The  speaker 
asked  what  the  most  fearful  thing  in  the  world  was. 
Man}'  replies  were  given  by  the  children — "  snakes," 
"  wild  beasts,"  "  fathers,"  "  gods,"  "  ghosts,"  "  de- 
mons," "  Satan,"  "  hell,"  etc.  These  were  admitted  to 
be  fearful,  but  the  speaker  told  the  children  that  one 
other  thing  was  to  be  more  feared  than  all  else,  nam.ely. 


74  EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

to  be  lancrhpfl  at  "     This  speech,  with  its  vivid  illustra- 


tions, made  a  lastinj^  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  boy, 
and  on  reading  what  I  had  written  he  realized  how  pow- 
erful a  motive  fear  of  ridicule  had  been  in  his  own  life; 
also  how  large  a  part  it  plays  in  the  moral  education  of 
the  young  in  Japan. 

Naturally  enough  this  fear  of  being  laughed  at  leads 
to  careful  and  minute  observation  of  the  clothing,  man- 
ners, and  speech  of  one's  associates,  and  prompt  con- 
formity to  them,  through  imitation.  The  sensitiveness 
of  Japanese  students  to  each  new  environment  is  thus 
easily  understood.  And  this  sensitiveness  to  environ- 
ment has  its  advantages  as  well  as  its  disadvantages.  I 
have  already  referred  to  the  help  it  gives  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  individual  conformity  to  ethical  standards. 
The  phenomenal  success  of  many  reforms  in  Japan  may 
easily  be  traced  to  the  national  sensitiveness  to  foreign 
criticism.  Many  instances  of  this  will  be  given  in  the 
course  of  this  work,  but  two  may  well  be  mentioned  at 
this  point.  According  to  the  older  customs  there  was 
great,  if  not  perfect,  freedom  as  to  the  use  of  clothing 
by  the  people.  The  apparent  indifference  shown  by 
them  in  the  matter  of  nudity  led  foreigners  to  call  the 
nation  uncivilized.  This  criticism  has  always  been  a 
galling  one,  and  not  without  reason.  In  many  respects 
their  civilization  has  been  fully  the  equal  of  that  of  any 
other  nation;  yet  in  this  respect  it  is  true  that  they  re- 
sembled and  still  do  resemble  semi-civilized  peoples. 
In  response  to  this  foreign  criticism,  however,  a  law 
was  passed,  early  in  the  Meiji  era,  prohibiting  nudity 
in  cities.  The  requirement  that  public  bathing  houses 
be  divided  into  two  separate  compartments,  one  for  men 
and  one  for  women,  was  likewise  due  to  foreign  opin- 
ion. That  this  is  the  case  may  be  fairly  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  the  enforcement  of  these  laws  has  largely 
taken  places  where  foreigners  abound,  whereas,  in  the 
interior  towns  and  villages  they  receive  much  less  atten- 
tion. It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that  now  at 
last,  twenty-five  years  after  their  jnissage.  they  are 
almost  everywhere  beginning  to  be  enforced  by  the 
authorities. 


SENSITIVENESS   TO    ENVIRONMENT      75 

My  other  illustration  of  sensitiveness  to  foreign  opin- 
ion is  the  present  state  of  Japanese  thought  about  the 
management  of  Formosa.  The  government  has  been 
severely  criticised  by  many  leading  papers  for  its  blunders 
there.  But  the  curious  feature  is  the  constant  reference  to 
the  contempt  into  which  such  mismanagement  will  bring 
Japan  in  the  sight  of  the  world — as  if  the  opinion  of 
other  nations  were  the  most  important  issue  involved, 
and  not  the  righteousness  and  probity  of  the  govern- 
ment itself.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  frequently 
the  opinion  of  other  nations  with  regard  to  Japan  is  a 
leading  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  people. 

In  this  connection  the  following  extract  finds  its  nat- 
ural place: 

"  In  a  very  large  number  of  schools  throughout  the 
country  special  instructions  have  been  given  to  the 
pupils  as  to  their  behavior  towards  foreigners.  From 
various  sources  we  have  culled  the  following  orders 
bearing  on  special  points,  which  we  state  as  briefly  as 
possible. 

"  (i)  Never  call  after  foreigners  passing  along  the 
streets  or  roads. 

"  (2)  When  foreigners  make  inquiries,  answer  them 
politely.  If  unable  to  make  them  understand,  inform  the 
police  of  the  fact. 

"  (3)  Never  accept  a  present  from  a  foreigner  when 
there  is  no  reason  for  his  giving  it,  and  never  charge 
him  anything  above  what  is  proper. 

"  (4)  Do  not  crowd  around  a  shop  when  a  foreigner 
is  making  purchases,  thereby  causing  him  much  annoy- 
ance. The  continuance  of  this  practice  disgraces  us 
as  a  nation. 

"  (5)  Since  all  human  beings  are  brothers  and  sisters, 
there  is  no  reason  for  fearing  foreigners.  Treat  them 
as  equals  and  act  uprightly  in  all  your  dealings  with 
them.     Be  neither  servile  nor  arrogant. 

"  (6)  Beware  of  combining  against  the  foreigner  and 
disliking  him  because  he  is  a  foreigner;  men  are  to  be 
judged  by  their  conduct  and  not  by  their  nationality. 

"  (7)  As  intercourse  with  foreigners  becomes  closer 


76         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

and  extends  over  a  series  of  years,  there  is  danger  that 
many  Japanese  may  become  enamored  of  their  ways 
and  customs  and  forsake  the  good  old  customs  of  their 
forefathers.  Against  this  danger  you  must  be  on  your 
guard. 

"  (8)  Taking  oiY  your  hat  is  the  proper  way  to  salute  a 
foreigner.  The  bending  of  the  body  low  is  not  be 
commended. 

"  (9)  When  you  see  a  foreigner  be  sure  and  cover  up 
naked  parts  of  the  body. 

"  (10)  Hold  in  high  regard  the  worship  of  ancestors 
and  treat  your  relations  with  warm  cordiality,  but  do  not 
regard  a  person  as  your  enemy  because  he  or  she  is  a 
Christian. 

"  (11)  In  going  through  the  world  you  will  often  find 
a  knowledge  of  a  foreign  tongue  absolutely  essential. 

"  (12)  Beware  of  selling  your  souls  to  foreigners  and 
becoming  their  slaves.    Sell  them  no  houses  or  lands. 

"  (13)  Aim  at  not  being  beaten  in  your  competition 
with  foreigners.  Remember  that  loyalty  and  filial  piety 
are  our  most  precious  national  treasures  and  do  nothing 
to  violate  them. 

"  Many  of  the  above  rules  are  excellent  in  tone.  Num- 
ber 7,  however,  which  hails  from  Osaka,  is  somewhat  nar- 
row and  prejudiced.  The  injunction  not  to  sell  houses 
to  foreigners  is,  as  the  Jiji  Shimpo  points  out,  absurd 
and  mischievous."  * 

The  sensitiveness  of  the  people  also  works  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  nation  in  the  social  unity  which  it  helps 
to  secure.  Indeed  I  cannot  escape  the  conviction  that  the 
striking  unity  of  the  Japanese  is  largely  due  to  this  char- 
acteristic. It  tends  to  make  their  mental  and  emotional 
activities  synchronous.  It  retards  reform  for  a  season, 
to  be  sure,  but  later  it  accelerates  it.  It  makes  it  diffi- 
cult for  individuals  to  break  away  from  their  surround- 
ings and  start  out  on  new  lines.  It  leads  to  a  general 
progress  while  it  tends  to  hinder  individual  progress. 
It  tends  to  draw  back  into  the  general  current  of 
national  life  those  individuals  who,  under  excejitional 
conditions,  may  have  succeeded  in  breaking  awa)  from 
*  Japan  Mail,  September  30,  1S99. 


SENSITIVENESS    TO    ENVIRONMENT      77 

ft  for  a  season.  This,  I  think,  is  one  of  the  factors  of  no 
little  power  at  work  among  the  Christian  churches  in 
Japan.  It  is  one,  too,  that  the  Japanese  themselves 
little  perceive;  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  foreigners 
likewise  fail  to  realize  its  force. 

Closely  connected  with  this  sensitiveness  to  environ- 
ment are  other  qualities  which  make  it  efifective.  They 
are:  great  flexibility,  adjustability,  agility  (both  mental 
and  physical),  and  the  powers  of  keen  attention  to  de- 
tails and  of  exact  imitation. 

As  opposed  to  all  this  is  the  Chinese  lack  of  flexibility. 
Contrast  a  Chinaman  and  a  Japanese  after  each  has 
been  in  America  a  year.  The  one  to  all  appearances  is 
an  American;  his  hat,  his  clothing,  his  manner,  seem  so 
like  those  of  an  American  that  were  it  not  for  his  small 
size,  Mongolian  type  of  face,  and  defective  English,  he 
could  easily  be  mistaken  for  one.  How  different  is  it 
with  the  Chinaman!  He  retains  his  curious  cue  with 
a  tenacity  that  is  as  intense  as  it  is  characteristic.  His 
hat  is  the  conventional  one  adopted  by  all  Chinese  im- 
migrants. His  clothing  likewise,  though  far  from 
Chinese,  is  nevertheless  entirely  un-American.  He 
makes  no  effort  to  conform  to  his  surroundings.  He 
seems  to  glory  in  his  separateness. 

The  Japanese  desire  to  conform  to  the  customs  and 
appearances  of  those  about  him  is  due  to  what  I  have 
called  sensitiveness;  his  success  is  due  to  the  flexibility 
of  his  mental  constitution. 

But  this  characteristic  is  seen  in  multitudes  of  little 
ways.  The  new  fashion  of  wearing  the  hair  according 
to  the  Western  styles;  of  wearing  Western  hats,  and 
Western  clothing,  now  universal  in  the  army,  among 
policemen,  and  common  among  of^cials  and  educated 
men;  the  use  of  chairs  and  tables,  lamps,  windows,  and 
other  Western  things  is  due  in  no  small  measure  to 
that  flexibility  of  mind  which  readily  adopts  new  ideas 
and  new  ways;  is  ready  to  try  new  things  and  new 
words,  and  after  trial,  if  it  finds  them  convenient  or  use- 
ful or  even  amusing,  to  retain  them  permanently,  and 
this  flexibility  is,  in  part,  the  reason  why  the  Japanese 
are  accounted  a  fickle  people.     They  accept  new  ways 


78         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

so  easily  that  those  who  do  not  have  this  faculty  have 
no  explanation  for  it  but  that  of  fickleness.  A  frequent 
surprise  to  a  missionary  in  Japan  is  that  of  meeting  a 
line-lookino;,  accomplished  gentleman  whom  he  knew  a 
few  years  before  as  a  crude,  ungainly  youth.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  it  is  the  possession  of  this  set  of  charac- 
teristics that  has  enabled  Japan  so  quickly  to  assimilate 
many  elements  of  an  alien  civilization. 

Yet  this  flexibility  of  mind  and  sensitiveness  to 
changed  conditions  find  some  apparently  striking  ex- 
ceptions. Notable  among  these  are  the  many  customs 
and  appliances  of  foreign  nations  which,  though  adopted 
by  the  people,  have  not  been  completely  modified  to 
suit  their  own  needs.  In  illustration  is  the  Chinese 
ideograph,  for  the  learning  of  which  even  in  the  modern 
common-school  reader,  there  is  no  arrangement  of  the 
characters  in  the  order  of  their  complexity.  The  pos- 
sibility of  simplifying  the  colossal  task  of  memorizing 
these  uncorrelated  ideographs  does  not  seem  to  have 
occurred  to  the  Japanese;  though  it  is  now  being  at- 
tempted by  the  foreigner.  Perhaps  a  partial  explana- 
tion of  this  apparent  exception  to  the  usual  flexibility  of 
the  people  in  meeting  conditions  may  be  found  in  their 
relative  lack  of  originality.  Still  I  am  inclined  to  refer 
it  to  a  greater  sensitiveness  of  the  Japanese  to  the  per- 
sonal and  human,  than  to  the  impersonal  and  physical 
environment. 

The  customary  explanation  of  the  group  of  char- 
acteristics considered  in  this  chapter  is  that  they  arc 
innate,  due  to  brain  and  nerve  structure,  and  acquired 
by  each  generation  through  biological  heredity.  If 
closely  examined,  however,  this  is  seen  to  be  no  expla- 
nation at  all.  Accepting  the  characteristics  as  empiri- 
cal, inexplicable  facts,  the  real  problem  is  evaded,  pushed 
into  prehistoric  times,  that  convenient  dumping  ground 
of  biological,  anthropological,  and  sociological  diffi- 
culties. 

Japanese  flexibility,  imitativencss,  and  sensitiveness 
to  environment  are  to  be  accounted  for  by  a  care- 
ful consideration  of  the  national  environment  and 
social     order.       Modern     ])sychology     has     called     at- 


SENSITIVENESS    TO    ENVIRONMENT      79 

tentioii  to  the  astonishing  part  played  by  imitation, 
conscious  and  unconscious,  in  the  evokition  of  the 
human  race,  and  in  the  unification  of  the  social 
group.  Prof.  Le  Tarde  goes  so  far  as  to  make  this 
the  fundamental  principle  of  human  evolution.  He  has 
shown  that  it  is  ever  at  work  in  the  life  of  every  human 
being,  modifying  all  his  thoughts,  acts,  and  feelings. 
In  the  evolution  of  civilization  the  rare  man  thinks,  the 
millions  imitate. 

A  slight  consideration  of  the  way  in  which  Occidental 
lands  have  developed  their  civilization  will  convince 
anyone  that  imitation  has  taken  the  leading  part. 
Japan,  therefore,  is  not  unique  in  this  respect.  Her 
periods  of  wholesale  imitation  have  indeed  called  spe- 
cial notice  to  the  trait.  But  the  rapidity  of  the  move- 
ment has  been  due  to  the  peculiarities  of  her  environ- 
ment. For  long  periods  she  has  been  in  complete  isola- 
tion, and  when  brought  into  contact  with  foreign  na- 
tions, she  has  found  them  so  far  in  advance  of  herself 
in  many  important  respects  that  rapid  imitation  was 
the  only  course  left  her  by  the  inexorable  laws  of  na- 
ture. Had  she  not  imitated  China  in  ancient  times  and 
the  Occident  in  modern  times,  her  independence,  if  not 
her  existence,  could  hardly  have  been  maintained. 

Imitation  of  admittedly  superior  civilizations  has 
therefore  been  an  integral,  conscious  element  of  Japan's 
social  order,  and  to  a  degree  perhaps  not  equaled  by 
the  social  order  of  any  other  race. 

The  difference  between  Japanese  imitation  and  that 
of  other  nations  lies  in  the  fact  that  whereas  the  latter, 
as  a  rule,  despise  foreign  races,  and  do  not  admit  the 
superiority  of  alien  civilizations  as  a  whole,  imitating 
only  a  detail  here  and  there,  often  without  acknowledg- 
ment and  sometimes  even  without  knowledge,  the  Jap- 
anese, on  the  other  hand,  have  repeatedly  been  placed 
in  such  circumstances  as  to  see  the  superiority  of  for- 
eign civilizations  as  a  whole,  and  to  desire  their  general 
adoption.  This  has  produced  a  spirit  of  imitation 
among  all  the  individuals  of  the  race.  It  has  become  a 
part  of  their  social  inheritance.  This  explanation 
largely   accounts   for   the    striking   difference   between 


8o        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

Japanese  and  Chinese  in  the  Occident.  The  Japanese 
go  to  the  West  in  order  to  acquire  all  the  West  can 
give.  The  Chinaman  goes  steeled  against  its  influ- 
ences. The  spirit  of  the  Japanese  renders  him  quickly 
susceptible  to  every  change  in  his  surroundings.  He 
is  ever  noting  details  and  adapting  himself  to  his  cir- 
cumstances. The  spirit  of  the  Chinaman,  on  the  con- 
trary, renders  him  quite  oblivious  to  his  environment. 
His  mind  is  closed.  Under  special  circumstances,  when 
a  Chinaman  has  been  liberated  from  the  prepossession 
of  his  social  inheritance,  he  has  shown  himself  as  capa- 
ble of  Occidentalization  in  clothing,  speech,  manner, 
and  thought  as  a  Japanese.  Such  cases,  however,  are  rare. 
But  a  still  more  effective  factor  in  the  development 
of  the  characteristics  under  consideration  is  the  nature 
of  Japanese  feudalism.  Its  emphasis  on  the  complete 
subordination  of  the  inferior  to  the  superior  was  one 
of  its  conspicuous  features.  This  was  a  factor  always 
and  everywhere  at  work  in  Japan.  No  individual  was 
beyond  its  potent  influence.  Attention  to  details,  ab- 
solute obedience,  constant,  conscious  imitation,  secre- 
tiveness,  suspiciousness,  were  all  highly  developed  by 
this  social  system.  Each  of  these  traits  is  a  special 
form  of  sensitiveness  to  environment.  From  the  most 
ancient  times  the  initiative  of  superiors  was  essential 
to  the  wide  adoption  by  the  people  of  any  new  idea  or 
custom.  Christianity  found  ready  acceptance  in  the 
sixteenth  century  and  Buddhism  in  the  eighth,  because 
they  had  been  espoused  by  exalted  persons.  The  su- 
periority of  the  civilization  of  China  in  early  times,  and 
of  the  West  in  modern  times,  was  first  acknowledged 
and  adopted  by  a  few  nobles  and  the  Emperor.  Having 
gained  this  prestige  they  promptly  became  acceptable 
to  the  rank  and  file  of  people  who  vied  with  each  other" 
in  their  adoption.  A  peculiarity  of  the  Japanese  is  the 
readiness  with  which  the  ideas  and  aims  of  the  rulers 
are  accepted  by  the  peo])le.  This  is  due  to  the  nature  of 
Japanese  feudalism.  It  has  made  the  body  of  the  na- 
tion conspicuously  subject  to  the  ruling  brain  and 
has  conferred  on  Japan  her  unique  sensitiveness  to  en- 
vironment. 


SENSITIVENESS   TO    ENVIRONMENT      8i 

Susceptibility  to  slight  changes  in  the  feehngs  of 
lords  and  masters  and  corresponding  flexibiHty  were 
important  social  traits,  necessary  products  of  the  old 
social  order.  Those  deficient  in  these  regards  would  in- 
evitably lose  in  the  struggle  for  social  precedence,  if  not 
in  the  actual  struggle  for  existence.  These  character- 
istics would,  accordingly,  be  highly  developed. 

Bearing  in  mind,  therefore,  the  character  of  the  fac- 
tors that  have  ever  been  acting  on  the  Japanese  psychic 
nature,  we  see  clearly  that  the  characteristics  under 
consideration  are  not  to  be  attributed  to  her  inherent 
race  nature,  but  may  be  sufficiently  accounted  for  by 
reference  to  the  social  order  and  social  environment. 


VI 

WAVES  OF  FEELING— ABDICATION 

IT  has  long  been  recognized  that  the  Japanese  are  emo- 
tional, but  the  full  significance  of  this  element  of  their 
nature  is  far  from  realized.  It  underlies  their  en- 
tire life;  it  determines  the  mental  activities  in  a  way 
and  to  a  degree  that  Occidentals  can  hardly  appreciate. 
Waves  of  feeling  have  swept  through  the  country, 
carrying  everything  before  them  in  a  manner  that  has 
oftentimes  amazed  us  of  foreign  lands.  An  illustration 
from  the  recent  pof^tical  life  of  the  nation  comes  to 
mind  in  this  connection.  For  months  previous  to  the 
outbreak  of  tho  recent  war  with  China,  there  had  been 
a  prolonged  struggle  between  the  Cabinet  and  the  po- 
litical parties  who  were  united  in  their  opposition  to  the 
government,  though  in  little  else.  The  parties  insisted 
that  the  Cabinet  should  be  responsible  to  the  party  in 
power  in  the  Lower  House,  as  is  the  case  in  England, 
that  thus  they  might  stand  and  fall  together.  The  Cab- 
inet, on  the  other  hand,  contended  that,  according  to 
the  constitution,  it  was  responsible  to  the  Emperor 
alone,  and  that  consequently  there  was  no  need  of  a 
change  in  the  Cabinet  with  every  change  of  party  lead- 
ership. The  nation  waxed  hot  over  the  discussion.  Sus- 
cessive  Diets  were  dissolved  and  new  Diets  elected,  in 
none  of  which,  however,  could  the  supporters  of  the 
Cabinet  secure  a  majority;  the  Cabinet  was,  therefore, 
incapable  of  carrying  out  any  of  its  distinctive  measures. 
Several  times  the  opposition  went  so  far  as  to  decline 
to  pass  the  budget  pro])osed  by  the  Cabinet,  unless  so 
reduced  as  to  crijiplc  the  government,  the  reason  con- 
stantly urged  being  that  the  Cabinet  was  not  compe- 
tent to  administer  the  expenditure  of  such  large  sluns 
of  money.    There  were  no  direct  charges  of  fraud,,  but 

82 


WAVES    OF   FEELING— ABDICATION      83 

simply  of  incompetence.  More  than  once  the  Cabinet 
was  compelled  to  carry  on  the  government  during-  the 
year  under  the  budget  of  the  previous  year,  as  provided 
by  the  constitution.  So  intense  was  the  feeling  that 
the  capital  was  full  of  "  soshi," — political  ruffians, — 
and  fear  was  entertained  as  to  the  personal  safety  of 
the  members  of  the  Cabinet.  The  whole  country  was 
intensely  excited  over  the  matter.  The  newspapers 
were  not  loath  to  charge  the  government  with  extrav- 
agance, and  a  great  explosion  seemed  inevitable,  when, 
suddenly,  a  breeze  from  a  new  quarter  arose  and  abso- 
lutely changed  the  face  of  the  nation. 

War  with  China  was  whispered,  and  then  noise-d 
around.  Events  moved  rapidly.  One  or  two  success- 
ful encounters  with  the  Chinese  stirred  the  warlike  pas- 
sion that  lurked  in  every  breast.  At  once  the  feud  with 
the  Cabinet  was  forgotten.  When,  on  short  notice, 
an  extra  session  of  the  Diet  was  called  to  vote  funds 
for  a  war,  not  a  word  was  breathed  about  lack  of  con- 
fidence in  the  Cabinet  or  its  incompetence  to  manage 
the  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  government;  on  the 
contrary,  within  five  minutes  from  the  introduction  of 
the  government  bill  asking  a  war  appropriation  of  150,- 
000,000  yen,  the  bill  was  unanimously  passed. 

Such  an  absolute  change  could  hardly  have  taken 
place  in  England  or  America,  or  any  land  less  subject 
to  waves  of  emotion.  So  far  as  I  could  learn,  the  na- 
tion was  a  unit  in  regard  to  the  war.  There  was  not 
the  slightest  sign  of  a  "  peace  party."  Of  all  the  Jap- 
anese with  whom  I  talked  only  one  ever  expressed  the 
slightest  opposition  to  the  war,  and  he  on  religious 
grounds,   being  a   Quaker. 

The  strength  of  the  emotional  element  tends  to  make 
the  Japanese  extremists.  If  liberals,  they  are  ex- 
tremely liberal;  if  conservative,  they  are  extremely  con- 
servative. The  craze  for  foreign  goods  and  customs 
which  prevailed  for  several  years  in  the  early  eighties 
was  replaced  by  an  almost  equally  strong  aversion  to 
anything  foreign. 

This  tendency  to  swing  to  extremes  has  cropped  out 
not  infrequently  in  the  theological  thinking  of  Japanese 


84         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

Christians.  Men  who  for  years  had  done  effective 
work  in  upbuilding  the  Church,  men  who  had  hfted 
hundreds  of  their  fellow-countrymen  out  of  moral  and 
religious  darkness  into  light  and  life,  have  suddenly, 
as  it  has  appeared,  lost  all  appreciation  of  the  truths 
they  had  been  teaching  and  have  swung  off  to  the 
limits  of  a  radical  rationalism,  losing  with  their  evan- 
gelical faith  their  power  of  helping  their  fellow-men, 
and  in  some  few  cases,  going  over  into  lives  of  open 
sin.  The  intellectual  reasons  given  by  them  to  account 
for  their  changes  have  seemed  insufficient;  it  will  be 
found  that  the  real  explanation  of  these  changes  is  to 
be  sought  not  in  their  intellectual,  but  in  their  emo- 
tional   natures. 

Care  must  be  taken,  however,  not  to  over-emphasize 
this  extremist  tendency.  In  some  respects,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  it  is  more  apparent  than  real.  The  appear- 
ance is  due  to  the  silent  passivity  even  of  those  who 
are  really  opposed  to  the  new  departure.  It  is  natural 
that  the  advocates  of  some  new  policy  should  be  en- 
thusiastic and  noisy.  To  give  the  impression  to 
an  outsider  that  the  new  enthusiasm  is  universal, 
those  who  do  not  share  it  have  simply  to  keep 
quiet.  This  takes  place  to  some  degree  in  every 
land,  but  particularly  so  in  Japan.  The  silence 
of  their  dissent  is  one  of  the  striking  character- 
istics of  the  Japanese.  It  seems  to  be  connected  with 
an  abdication  of  personal  responsibility.  How  often 
in  the  experience  of  the  missionary  it  has  happened 
that  his  first  knowledge  of  friction  in  a  church,  wholly 
independent  and  self-supporting  and  having  its  own 
native  pastor,  is  the  silent  withdrawal  of  certain  mem- 
bers from  their  customary  places  of  worship.  On  in- 
quiry it  is  learned  that  certain  things  are  being  done  or 
said  which  do  not  suit  them  and,  instead  of  seeking  to 
have  these  matters  righted,  they  simply  wash  their 
hands  of  the  whole  affair  by  silent  withdrawal. 

The  Kumi-ai  church,  in  Kumamoto,  from  being  large 
and  prosperous,  fell  to  an  actual  active  membership  of 
less  than  a  dozen,  solely  because,  as  each  member  be- 
came dissatisfied  with  the  high-handed  antl  radical  pas- 


WAVES    OF   FEELING -ABDICATION      85 

tor,  he  simply  withdrew.  Had  each  one  stood  by  the 
church,  realizing  that  he  had  a  responsibility  toward 
it  which  duty  forbade  him  to  shirk,  the  conservative 
and  substantial  members  of  the  church  would  soon  have 
been  united  in  their  opposition  to  the  radical  pastor 
and,  being  in  the  majority,  could  have  set  matters  right. 
In  the  case  of  perversion  of  trust  funds  by  the  trustees 
of  the  Kumamoto  School,  many  Japanese  felt  that  in- 
justice was  being  done  to  the  American  Board  and  a 
stain  was  being  inflicted  on  Japan's  fair  name,  but  they 
did  nothing  either  to  express  their  opinions  or  to  mod- 
ify the  results.  So  silent  were  they  that  we  were 
tempted  to  think  them  either  ignorant  of  what  was  tak- 
ing place,  or  else  indififerent  to  it.  We  now  know,  how- 
ever, that  many  felt  deeply  on  the  matter,  but  were  sim- 
ply silent  according  to  the  Japanese  custom. 

But  silent  dissent  does  not  necessarily  last  indefi- 
nitely, though  it  may  continue  for  years.  As  soon  as 
some  check  has  been  put  upon  the  rising  tide  of  feel- 
ing, and  a  reaction  is  evident,  those  who  before  had 
been  silent  begin  to  voice  their  reactionary  feeling, 
while  those  who  shortly  before  had  been  in  the  ascend- 
ant begin  to  take  their  turn  of  silent  dissent.  Thus  the 
waves  are  accentuated,  both  in  their  rise  and  in  their 
relapse,  by  the  abdicating  proclivity  of  the  people. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  tendency  of  the  nation  to  be  swept 
from  one  extreme  to  another  by  alternate  waves  of  feel- 
ing, there  are  many  well-balanced  men  who  are  not  car- 
ried with  the  tide.  The  steady  progress  made  by  the 
nation  during  the  past  generation,  in  spite  of  emo- 
tional actions  and  reactions,  must  be  largely  attributed 
to  the  presence  in  its  midst  of  these  more  stable  na- 
tures. These  are  the  men  who  have  borne  the  respon- 
sibilities of  government.  So  far  as  we  are  able  to  see, 
they  have  not  been  led  by  their  feelings,  but  rather  by 
their  judgments.  When  the  nation  was  wild  with  in- 
dignation over  Europe's  interference  with  the  treaty 
which  brought  the  China-Japanese  war  to  a  close,  the 
men  at  the  helm  saw  too  clearly  the  futility  of  an  at- 
tempt to  fight  Russia  to  allow  themselves  to  be  car- 
ried away  by  sentimental  notions  of  patriotism.   Theirs 


86         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

was  a  deeper  and  truer  patriotism  than  that  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  nation,  who,  flushed  with  recent  victories  by 
land  and  by  sea,  were  eager  to  give  Russia  the  thrash- 
ing which  they  felt  quite  able  to  administer. 

Abdication  is  such  an  important  element  in  Japanese 
life,  serving  to  throw  responsibility  on  the  young,  and 
thus  helping  to  emphasize  the  emotional  characteris- 
tics of  the  people,  that  we  may  well  give  it  further  at- 
tention at  this  point.  In  describing  it,  I  can  do  no 
better  than  quote  from  J.  H.  Gubbins'  valuable  introduc- 
tion to  his  translation  of  the  New  Civil  Code  of  Japan.* 

"  Japanese  scholars  who  have  investigated  the  sub- 
ject agree  in  tracing  the  origin  of  the  present  custom  to 
the  abdication  of  Japanese  sovereigns,  instances  of 
which  occur  at  an  early  period  of  Japanese  history. 
These  earlier  abdications  were  independent  of  religious 
influences,  but  with  the  advent  of  Buddhism  abdica- 
tion entered  upon  a  new  phase.  In  imitation,  it  would 
seem,  of  the  retirement  for  the  purpose  of  religious 
contemplation  of  the  Head  Priests  of  Buddhist  mon- 
asteries, abdicating  sovereigns  shaved  their  heads  and 
entered  the  priesthood,  and  when  subsequently  the  cus- 
tom came  to  be  employed  for  political  purposes,  the 
cloak  of  religion  was  retained.  From  the  throne  the 
custom  spread  to  Regents  and  high  officers  of  state, 
and  so  universal  had  its  observance  amongst  officials 
of  the  high  ranks  become  in  the  twelfth  century  that, 
as  Professor  Shigeno  states,  it  was  almost  the  rule  for 
such  persons  to  retire  from  the  world  at  the  age  of 
forty  or  fifty,  and  nominally  enter  the  priesthood,  both 
the  act  and  the  person  performing  it  being  termed 
'  niu  do.'  In  the  course  of  time,  tlie  custom  of  abdi- 
cation ceased  to  be  confined  to  officials,  and  extended 
to  feudal  nobility  and  the  military  class  generally, 
whence  it  spread  through  the  nation,  and  at  this  stage 
of  its  transition  its  connection  with  the  phase  it  finally 
assumed  becomes  clear.  But  with  its  extension  beyond 
the  circle  of  official  dignitaries,  and  its  consequent  sev- 
erance from  tradition  and  religious  associations,  whether 
*  Part  II.  p.  xxxii. 


WAVES    OF   FEELING— ABDICATION      87 

re:,l  or  nominal  abdication  changed  its  name.  It  was  no 
longer  termed  '  niu  do/  but  '  in  kio,'  the  old  word 
being  retained  only  in  its  strict  religious  meaning,  and 
'  in  kio  '  is  the  term  in  use  to-day. 

"  In  spite  of  the  religious  origin  of  abdication,  its 
connection  with  religion  has  long  since  vanished,  and 
it  may  be  said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  the 
Japanese  of  to-day,  when  he  or  she  abdicates,  is  in  no 
way  actuated  by  the  feeling  which  impelled  European 
monarchs  in  past  times  to  end  their  days  in  the  seclu- 
sion of  the  cloister,  and  which  finds  expression  to-day  in 
the  Irish  phrase,  *  To  make  one's  soul.'  Apart  from 
the  influence  of  traditional  convention,  which  counts 
for  something  and  also  explains  the  great  hold  on  the 
nation  which  the  custom  has  acquired,  the  motive  seems 
to  be  somewhat  akin  to  that  which  leads  people  in  some 
Western  countries  to  retire  from  active  life  at  an  age 
when  bodily  infirmity  cannot  be  adduced  as  the  reason. 
But  with  this  great  difference,  that  in  the  one  case,  that 
of  Western  countries,  it  is  the  business  or  profession, 
the  active  work  of  life,  which  is  relinquished,  the  posi- 
tion of  the  individual  vis-a-vis  the  family  being  un- 
affected; in  the  other  case,  it  is  the  position  of  head  of 
the  family  which  is  relinquished,  with  the  result  of  the 
complete  efifacement  of  the  individual  so  far  as  the 
family  is  concerned.  Moreover,  although  abdication 
usually  implies  the  abandonment  of  the  business,  or 
profession,  of  the  person  who  abdicates,  this  does  not 
necessarily  follow,  abdication  being  in  no  way  incom- 
patible with  the^jimitinuation  of  the  active  pursuits  in 
which  the  person  in  question  is  engaged.  And  if  an 
excuse  be  needed  in  either  case,  there  would  seem  to  be 
more  for  the  Japanese  head  of  family,  who,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  duties  and  responsibilities  incumbent  upon 
his  position,  has  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  tedious  cere- 
monies and  observances  which  characterize  family  life  in 
Japan,  and  are  a  severe  tax  upon  time  and  energies, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  is  fettered  by  the  restrictions 
upon  individual  freedom  of  action  imposed  by  the 
family  system.  Tliat  in  many  cases  the  reason  for  ab- 
dication lies  in  the  wish  to  escape  from  the  tyrannical 


88  EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

calls  of  family  life,  rather  than  in  mere  desire  for  idle- 
ness and  ease,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  just  as  in  past 
times  the  abdication  of  an  Emperor,  a  Regent,  or  a  state 
dignitary,  was  often  the  signal  for  renewed  activity  on 
his  part,  so  in  modern  Japanese  life  the  period  of  a  per- 
son's greatest  activity  not  infrequently  dates  from  the 
time  of  his  withdrawal  from  the  headship  of  his  family." 

The  abdicating  proclivities  of  the  nation  in  pre-Meiji 
times  are  well  shown  by  the  official  list  of  daimyos  pub- 
lished by  the  Shogunate  in  1862.  To  a  list  of  268  rul- 
ing daimyos  is  added  a  list  of  104  "  in  kio." 

In  addition  to  what  we  may  call  political  and  family 
abdication,  described  above,  is  personal  abdication,  re- 
ferred to  on  a  previous  page. 

Are  the  traits  of  Japanese  character  considered  in 
this  chapter  inherent  and  necessary?  Already  our  de- 
scription has  conclusively  shown  them  to  be  due  to  the 
nature  of  the  social  order.  This  was  manifestly  the 
case  in  regard  to  political  and  family  abdication.  The 
like  origin  of  personal  abdication  is  manifest  to  him 
who  learns  how  little  there  was  in  the  ancient  training 
tending  to  give  each  man  a  "  feeling  of  independent  re- 
sponsibility to  his  own  conscience  in  the  sight  of 
Heaven."  He  was  taught  devotion  to  a  person  rather 
than  to  a  principle.  The  duty  of  a  retainer  was  not  to 
think  and  decide,  but  to  do.  He  might  in  silence  dis- 
approve and  as  far  as  possible  he  should  then  keep  out 
of  his  lord's  way;  should  he  venture  to  think  and  to  act 
contrary  to  his  lord's  commands,  he  must  expect  and 
plan  to  commit  "  harakiri  "  in  the  near  future.  Per- 
sonal abdication  and  silent  disa])proval,  therefore, 
were  direct  results  of  the  social  order. 


VII 

HEROES  AND  HERO-WORSHIP 

IF  a  clew  to  the  character  of  a  nation  is  gained  by  a 
study  of  the  nature  of  the  gods  it  worships,  no  less 
valuable  an  insight  is  gained  by  a  study  of  its  heroes. 
Such  a  study  confirms  the  impression  that  the  emotional 
life  is  fundamental  in  the  Japanese  temperament. 
Japan  is  a  nation  of  hero-worshipers.  This  is  no  exag- 
geration. Not  only  is  the  primitive  religion,  Shintoism, 
systematic  hero-worship,  but  every  hero  known  to  his- 
tory is  deified,  and  has  a  shrine  or  temple.  These 
heroes,  too,  are  all  men  of  conspicuous  valor  or 
strength,  famed  for  mighty  deeds  of  daring.  They  are 
men  of  passion.  The  most  popular  story  in  Japanese 
literature  is  that  of  "  The  Forty-seven  Ronin,"  who 
avenged  the  death  of  their  liege-lord  after  years  of  wait- 
ing and  plotting.  This  revenge  administered,  they 
committed  harakiri  in  accordance  with  the  etiquette  of 
the  ethical  code  of  feudal  Japan.  Their  tombs  are  to 
this  day  among  the  most  frequented  shrines  in  the 
capital  of  the  land,  and  one  of  the  most  popular  dramas 
presented  in  the  theaters  is  based  on  this  same  heroic 
tragedy. 

The  prominence  of  the  emotional  element  may  be 
seen  in  the  popular  description  of  national  heroes.  The 
picture  of  an  ideal  Japanese  hero  is  to  our  eyes  a  cari- 
cature. His  face  is  distorted  by  a  fierce  frenzy  of  pas- 
sion, his  eyeballs  glaring,  his  hair  fiying,  and  his  hands 
hold  with  a  mighty  grip  the  two-handed  sword  where- 
with he  is  hewing  to  pieces  an  enemy.  I  am  often 
amazed  at  the  difference  between  the  pictures  of  Japa- 
nese heroes  and  the  living  Japanese  I  see.  This  differ- 
ence is  manifestly  due  to  the  idealizing  process;  for  they 
89 


}( 


90        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

love  to  see  their  heroes  in  their  passionate  moods  and 
tenses. 

The  craving  for  heroes,  even  on  the  part  of  those  who 
are  famihar  with  Western  thought  and  customs,  is  a 
feature  of  great  interest.  Well  do  I  remember  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  educated,  Christian  young  men 
awaited  the  coming  to  Japan  of  an  eminent  American 
scholar,  from  whose  lectures  impossible  things  were 
expected.  So  long  as  he  was  in  America  and  only  his 
books  were  known,  he  was  a  hero.  But  when  he  ap- 
peared in  person,  carrying  himself  like  any  courteous 
gentleman,  he  lost  his  exalted  position. 

Townsend  Harris  showed  his  insight  into  Oriental 
thought  never  more  clearly  than  by  maintaining  his 
dignity  according  to  Japanese  standards  and  methods. 
On  his  first  entry  into  Tokyo  he  states,  in  his  journal, 
that  although  he  would  have  preferred  to  ride  on  horse- 
back, in  order  that  he  might  see  the  city  and  the  people, 
yet  as  the  highest  dignitaries  never  did  so,  but  always 
rode  in  entirely  closed  "  norimono  "  (a  species  of  sedan 
chair  carried  by  twenty  or  thirty  bearers),  he  too  would 
do  the  same;  to  have  ridden  into  the  limits  of  the  city 
on  horseback  would  have  been  construed  by  the  Japa- 
nese as  an  admission  that  he  held  a  far  lower  official 
rank  than  that  of  a  plenipotentiary  of  a  great  nation. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  these  ideals  of 
heroes  arose.  They  are  the  same  in  every  land  where 
militarism,  and  especially  feudalism,  is  the  foundation 
on  which  the  social  order  rests. 

Some  of  the  difficulties  met  by  foreign  missionaries 
in  trying  to  do  their  work  arise  from  the  fact  that  they 
are  not  easily  regarded  as  heroes  by  their  followers. 
The  people  are  accustomed  to  commit  their  guidance  to 
officials  or  to  teachers  or  advisers  whom  they  can  re- 
gard as  heroes.  Since  missionaries  are  not  officials  and 
do  not  have  the  manners  of  heroes,  it  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  Jai")anese  will  accept  their  leadership. 

A  few  foreigners  have,  however,  become  heroes  in 
Japanese  eyes.  President  Clark  and  Rev.  S.  R.  Brown 
had  great  influence  on  groups  of  young  men  in  the 
early  years   of  Mciji,  while   giving  them  secular  edu- 


HEROES   AND    HERO-WORSHIP  91 

cation  combined  with  Christian  instruction.  The  condi- 
tions, however,  were  then  extraordinarily  exceptional, 
and  it  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  neither  man  remained 
long  in  Japan  at  that  time.  Another  foreigner  who 
was  exalted  to  the  skies  by  a  devoted  band  of  students 
was  a  man  well  suited  to  be  a  hero — for  he  had  the 
samurai  spirit  to  the  full.  Indeed,  in  absolute  fearless- 
ness and  assumption  of  superiority,  he  out-samuraied 
the  samurai.  He  was  a  man  of  impressive  and  imperi- 
ous personality.  Yet  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  when 
he  was  brought  back  to  Japan  by  his  former  pupils^, 
after  an  absence  of  about  eighteen  years,  during  which 
they  had  continued  to  extol  his  merits  and  revere  his 
memory,  it  was  not  long  before  they  discovered  that  he 
was  not  the  man  their  imagination  had  created.  Not 
many  months  were  needed  to  remove  him  from  his 
pedestal.  It  would  hardly  be  a  fair  statement  of  the 
whole  case  to  leave  the  matter  here.  So  far  as  I  know. 
President  Clark  and  Rev.  S.  R.  Brown  have  always 
retained  their  hold  on  the  imagination  of  the  Japanese. 
The  foreigner  who  of  all  others  has  perhaps  done  the 
most  for  Japan,  and  whose  services  have  been  most 
heartily  acknowledged  by  the  nation  and  government, 
was  Dr.  Guido  F.  Verbeck,  who  began  his  missionary 
work  in  1859;  he  was  the  teacher  of  large  numbers  of 
the  young  men  who  became  leaders  in  the  transforma- 
tion of  Japan;  he  alone  of  foreigners  was  made  a  citizen 
and  was  given  a  free  and  general  pass  for  travel;  and 
his  funeral  in  1898  was  attended  by  the  nobility  of  the 
land,  and  the  Emperor  himself  made  a  contribution 
toward  the  expenses.  Dr.  Verbeck  is  destined  to  be 
one  of  Japan's  few  foreign  heroes. 

Among  the  signs  of  Japanese  craving  for  heroes  may 
be  mentioned  the  constant  experience  of  missionaries 
when  search  is  being  made  for  a  man  to  fill  a  particular 
place.  The  descriptions  of  the  kind  of  man  desired  are 
such  that  no  one  can  expect  to  meet  him.  The  Chris- 
tian boys'  school  in  Kumamoto,  and  the  church  with  it, 
went  for  a  whole  year  without  principal  and  pastor  be- 
cause they  could  not  secure  a  man  of  national  reputa- 
tion.    They  wanted  a  hero-principal,  who  would  cut  a 


92         EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

great  figure  in  local  politics  and  also  be  a  hero-leader 
for  the  Christian  work  in  the  whole  island  of  Kyushu, 
causing  the  school  to  shine  not  only  in  Kumamoto,  but 
to  send  forth  its  light  and  its  fame  throughout  the  Em- 
pire and  even  to  foreign  lands.  The  unpretentious,  un- 
prepossessing-looking man  who  was  chosen  temporarily, 
though  endowed  with  common  sense  and  rather  un- 
usual ability  to  harmonize  the  various  elements  in  the 
school,  was  not  deemed  satisfactory.  He  was  too  much 
like  Socrates.  At  last  they  found  a  man  after  their  own 
heart.  He  had  traveled  and  studied  long  abroad;  was 
a  dashing,  brilliant  fellow;  would  surely  make  things 
hum;  so  at  least  said  those  who  recommended  him 
(and  he  did).  But  he  was  still  a  poor  student  in  Scot- 
land; his  passage  money  must  be  raised  by  the  scho'ol 
if  he  was  to  be  secured.  And  raised  it  was.  Four 
hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  those  one  hundred  and 
fifty  poor  boys  and  girls,  who  lived  on  two  dollars 
a  month,  scantily  clothed  and  insufficiently  warmed, 
secured  from  their  parents  and  sent  across  the  seas  to 
bring  back  him  who  was  to  be  their  hero-principal  and 
pastor.  The  rest  of  the  story  I  need  not  tell  in  detail, 
but  I  may  whisper  that  he  was  more  of  a  slashing  hero 
than  they  planned  for;  in  three  months  the  boys'  school 
was  split  in  twain  and  in  less  than  three  years  both  frag- 
ments of  the  school  had  not  only  lost  all  their  Christian 
character,  but  were  dead  and  gone  forever.  And  the 
grounds  on  which  the  buildings  stood  were  turned  into 
mulberry  fields. 

Talking  not  long  since  to  a  native  friend,  concerning 
the  hero-worshiping  tendency  of  the  Japanese,  I  had  my 
attention  called  to  the  fact  that,  while  what  has  been  said 
above  is  substantially  correct  as  concerns  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  people,  especially  the  young  men,  there 
is  nevertheless  a  class  whose  ideal  heroes  are  not  mili- 
tary, but  moral.  Their  power  arises  not  through  self- 
assertion,  but  rather  through  humility;  their  influence  is 
due  entirely  to  learning  coupled  with  insight  into  the 
great  moral  issues  of  life.  Such  has  been  the  character 
of  not  a  few  of  the  "  moral  "  teachers.  1  have  recently 
read  a  Japanese  novel  l)ased  upon  the  life  of  one  such 


HEROES   AND    HERO-WORSHIP  93 

hero.  Omi  Seijin,  or  the  "  Sage  of  Omi,"  is  a  name  well 
known  among  the  people  of  Japan;  and  his  fame  rests 
rather  on  his  character  than  on  his  learning.  If  tradi- 
tion is  correct,  his  influence  on  the  people  of  his  region 
was  powerful  enough  to  transform  the  character  of  the 
place,  producing  a  paradise  on  earth  whence  lust  and 
crime  were  banished.  Whatever  the  actual  facts  of  liis 
life  may  have  been,  this  is  certainly  the  representation 
of  bis  character  now  held  up  for  honor  and  imitation. 
There  are  also  indications  that  the  ideal  military  hero 
is  not,  for  all  the  people,  the  self-assertive  type  that  I 
have  described  above,  though  this  is  doubtless  the  prev- 
alent one.  Not  long  since  I  heard  the  following  coup- 
let as  to  the  nature  of  a  true  hero: 

"  Makoto  no  Ei-yu; 
Sono  yo,  aizen  to  shite  shumpu  no  gotoshi;  _ 
Sono  shin,  kizen  to  shite  kinseki  no  gotoshi. 

"The  true  Hero; 
In  appearance,  charming  like  the  spring  breeze. 
In  heart,  firm  as  a  rock." 

Another  phrase  that  I  have  run  across  relating  to  the 
ideal  man  is,  "  I  atte  takakarazu,"  which  means  in  plain 
English,  "  having  authority,  but  not  puffed  up."  In  the 
presence  of  these  facts,  it  will  not  do  to  think  that  the 
ideal  hero  of  all  the  Japanese  is,  or  even  in  olden  times 
was,  only  a  military  hero  full  of  swagger  and  bluster;  in 
a  military  age  such  would,  of  necessity,  be  a  popular 
ideal;  but  just  in  proportion  as  men  rose  to  higher 
forms  of  learning,  and  character,  so  would  their  ideals 
be  raised. 

It  is  not  to  be  lightly  assumed  that  the  spirit  of  hero- 
worship  is  wholly  an  evil  or  a  necessarily  harmful  thing. 
It  has  its  advantages  and  rewards  as  well  as  its  dangers 
and  evils.  The  existence  of  hero-worship  in  any  land 
reveals  a  nature  in  the  people  that  is  capable  of  heroic 
actions.  Men  appreciate  and  admire  that  which  in  a 
measure  at  least  they  are,  and  more  that  which  they 
aspire  to  become.  The  recent  war  revealed  how  the 
capacity  for  heroism  of  a  warlike  nature  lies  latent  in 
every  Japanese  breast  and  not  in  the  descendants  of  the 


94         EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

old  military  class  alone.  But  it  is  more  encouraging 
to  note  that  popular  appreciation  of  moral  heroes  is 
growing. 

Education  and  religion  are  bringing  forth  modern 
moral  heroes.  The  late  Dr.  Neesima,  the  founder  of 
the  Doshisha,  is  a  hero  to  many  even  outside  the  Church. 
Mr.  Ishii,  the  father  of  Orphan  Asylums  in  Japan,  prom- 
ises to  be  another.  A  people  that  can  rear  and  admire 
men  of  this  character  has  in  it  the  material  of  a  truly 
great  nation. 

The  hero-worshiping  characteristic  of  the  Japanese 
depends  on  two  other  traits  of  their  nature.  The  first  is 
the  reality  of  strong  personalities  among  them  capable 
of  becoming  heroes;  the  second  is  the  possession  of  a 
strong  idealizing  tendency.  Prof.  G.  T.  Ladd  has 
called  them  a  "  sentimental "  people,  in  the  sense  that 
they  are  powerfully  moved  by  sentiment.  This  is  a 
conspicuous  trait  of  their  character  appearing  in  num- 
berless ways  in  their  daily  life.  The  passion  for  group- 
photographs  is  largely  due  to  this.  Sentimentalism,  in 
the  sense  given  it  by  Prof.  Ladd,  is  the  emotional  aspect 
of  idealism. 

The  new  order  of  society  is  reacting  on  the  older 
ideal  of  a  hero  and  is  materially  modifying  it.  The  old- 
fashioned  samurai,  girded  with  two  swords,  ready  to  kill 
a  personal  foe  at  sight,  is  now  only  the  ideal  of  romance. 
In  actual  life  he  would  soon  find  himself  deprived  of  his 
liberty  and  under  the  condemnation  not  only  of  the  law, 
but  also  of  public  opinion.  The  new  ideal  with  which  I 
have  come  into  most  frequent  contact  is  far  different. 
Many,  possibly  the  majority,  of  the  young  men  and  boys 
with  whom  I  have  talked  as  to  their  aim  in  life,  have 
said  that  they  desired  to  secure  first  of  all  a  thorough 
education,  in  order  that  finally  they  might  become  great 
"  statesmen  "  and  might  guide  the  nation  into  paths  of 
prosperity  and  international  power.  The  modern  hero 
is  one  who  gratifies  the  patriotic  passion  by  bringing 
some  marked  success  to  the  nation.  He  must  be  a  gen- 
tleman, educated  in  science,  in  history,  and  in  foreign 
languages;  but  above  all,  he  must  be  versetl  in  political 
economy  and  law.     This  new  ideal  of  a  national  hero 


HEROES   AND    HERO-WORSHIP  95 

has  been  brought  in  by  the  order  of  society,  and  in  pro- 
portion as  this  order  continues,  and  emphasis  continues 
to  be  laid  on  mental  and  moral  power,  rather  than  on 
rank  or  official  position,  on  the  intrinsic  rather  than 
on  the  accidental,  will  the  old  ideal  fade  away  and  the 
new  ideal  take  its  place.  Among  an  idealizing  and 
emotional  people,  such  as  the  Japanese,  various  ideals 
will  naturally  find  extreme  expression.  As  society 
grows  complex  also  and  its  various  elements  become 
increasingly  differentiated,  so  will  the  ideals  pass 
through  the  same  transformations.  A  study  of  ideals, 
therefore,  serves  several  ends;  it  reveals  the  present 
character  of  those  whose  ideals  they  are;  it  shows  the 
degree  of  development  of  the  social  organism  in  which 
they  live;  it  makes  known,  likewise,  the  degree  of  the 
differentiation  that  has  taken  place  between  the  various 
elements  of  the  nation. 


VIII 
LOVE  FOR  CHILDREN 

AN  aspect  of  Japanese  life  widely  remarked  and 
l\  praised  by  foreign  writers  is  the  love  for  chil- 
X  JLdren.  Children's  holidays,  as  the  third  day  of 
the  third  moon  and  the  fifth  day  of  the  fifth  moon,  are 
general  celebrations  for  boys  and  girls  respectively,  and 
are  observed  with  much  gayety  all  over  the  land.  At 
these  times  the  universal  aim  is  to  please  the  children; 
the  girls  have  dolls  and  the  exhibition  of  ancestral  dolls; 
while  the  boys  have  toy  paraphernalia  of  all  the  ancient 
and  modern  forms  of  warfare,  and  enormous  wind- 
inflated  paper  fish,  symbols  of  prosperity  and  success, 
fly  from  tall  bamboos  in  the  front  yard.  Contrary  to 
the  prevailing  opinion  among  foreigners,  these  festivals 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  birthday  celebrations. 
In  addition  to  special  festivals,  the  children  figure  con- 
spicuously in  all  holidays  and  merry-makings.  To  the 
famous  flower-festival  celebrations,  families  go  in 
groups  and  make  an  all-day  picnic  of  the  joyous 
occasion. 

The  Japanese  fondness  for  children  is  seen  not  only 
at  festival  times.  Parents  seem  always  ready  to  provide 
their  children  with  toys.  As  a  consequence  toy  stores 
flourish.    There  is  hardly  a  street  without  its  store. 

A  still  further  reason  for  the  impression  that  the  Jap- 
anese are  esi)ecially  fond  of  their  children  is  the  slight 
amount  of  punislimcnt  and  reprimand  which  they  admin- 
ister. The  children  seem  to  have  nearly  everything  their 
own  way.  Playing  on  the  streets,  they  are  always  in 
evidence  and  are  given  the  right  of  way. 

That  Japanese  show  much  affection  for  their  children 
is  clear.  The  question  of  importance,  however,  is 
whether  they  have  it  in  a  marketl  degree,  more,  for  in- 

96 


LOVE    FOR    CHILDREN  97 

stance,  than  Americans?  And  if  so,  is  this  due  to  their 
nature,  or  may  it  be  attributed  to  their  family  Hfe  as 
molded  by  the  social  order?  It  is  my  impression  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  Japanese  do  not  show  more  affection 
for  their  children  than  Occidentals,  although  they  may 
at  first  sight  appear  to  do  so.  Among  the  laboring 
classes  of  the  West,  the  father,  as  a  rule,  is  away  from 
home  all  through  the  hours  of  the  day,  working  in 
shop  or  factory.  He  seldom  sees  his  children  except 
upon  the  Sabbath.  Of  course,  the  father  has  then  very 
little  to  do  with  their  care  or  education,  and  little  op- 
portunity for  the  manifestation  of  affection.  In  Japan, 
however,  the  industrial  organization  of  society  is  still 
such  that  the  father  is  at  home  a  large  part  of  the 
time.  The  factories  are  few  as  yet;  the  store  is  usually 
not  separate  from  the  home,  but  a  part  of  it,  the  front 
room  of  the  house.  Family  life  is,  therefore,  much  less 
broken  in  upon  by  the  industrial  necessities  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  there  are  accordingly  more  opportunities  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  father's  affection  for  the  chil- 
dren. Furthermore,  the  laboring  people  in  Japan  live 
much  on  the  street,  and  it  is  a  common  thing  to  see  the 
father  caring  for  children.  While  I  have  seldom  seen 
a  father  with  an  infant  tied  to  his  back,  I  have  frequently 
seen  them  with  their  infant  sons  tucked  into  their 
bosoms,  an  interesting  sight.  This  custom  gives  a  vivid 
impression  of  parental  affection.  But,  comparing  the 
middle  classes  of  Japan  and  the  West,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that,  as  a  whole,  the  Western  father  has  more  to  do 
by  far  in  the  care  and  education  of  the  children  than 
the  Japanese  father,  and  that  there  is  no  less  of  fondling 
and  playing  with  children.  If  we  may  judge  the  degree 
of  affection  by  the  signs  of  its  demonstrations,  we  must 
pronounce  the  Occidental,  with  his  habits  of  kissing  and 
embracing,  as  far  and  away  more  affectionate  than  his 
Oriental  cousin.  While  the  Occidental  may  not  make  so 
much  of  an  occasion  of  the  advent  of  a  son  as  does  the 
Oriental,  he  continues  to  remember  the  birthdays  of  all 
his  children  with  joy  and  celebrations,  as  the  Oriental 
does  not.  Although  the  Japanese  invariably  say,  when 
asked  about  it,  that  they  celebrate  their  children's  birth- 


98         EVOLUTION    OF   THE    JAPANESE 

days,  the  uniform  experience  of  the  foreiiii^ner  is  that 
birthday  celebrations  play  a  very  insignificant  part  in 
the  joys  and  the  social  life  of  the  home. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why,  apart  from  the 
question  of  affection,  the  Japanese  should  manifest  spe- 
cial joy  on  the  advent  of  sons,  and  particularly  of  a  first 
son.  The  Oriental  system  of  ancestral  worship,  with 
the  consequent  need,  both  religious  and  political,  of 
maintaining  the  family  line,  is  quite  enough  to  account 
for  all  the  congratulatory  ceremonies  customary  on  the 
birth  of  sons.  The  fact  that  special  joy  is  felt  and  mani- 
fested on  the  birth  of  sons,  and  less  on  the  birth  of 
daughters,  clearly  shows  that  the  dominant  conceptions 
of  the  social  order  have  an  important  place  in  determin- 
ing even  so  fundamental  a  trait  as  affection  for  off- 
spring. 

Affection  for  children  is,  however,  not  limited  to  the 
day  of  their  birth  or  the  period  of  their  infancy.  In  judg- 
ing of  the  relative  possession  by  different  races  of  affec- 
tion for  children,  we  must  ask  how  the  children  are 
treated  during  all  their  succeeding  years.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  the  advantage  is  then  entirely  on  the  side 
of  the  Occidental.  Not  only  does  this  appear  in  the 
demonstrations  of  affection  which  are  continued 
throughout  childhood,  often  even  throughout  life,  but 
more  especially  in  the  active  parental  solicitude  for  the 
children's  welfare,  striving  to  fit  them  for  life's  duties 
and  watching  carefully  over  their  mental  and  moral  edu- 
cation. In  these  respects  the  average  Occidental  is  far 
in  advance  of  the  average  Oriental. 

I  have  been  told  that,  since  the  coming  in  of  the  new 
civilization  and  the  rise  of  the  new  ideas  about  woman, 
marriage,  and  home,  there  is  clearly  observable  to  the 
Japanese  themselves  a  change  in  the  way  in  which  chil- 
dren are  being  treated.  But,  even  still,  the  elder  son  takes 
the  more  prominent  place  in  the  affection  of  the  family. 
and  sons  precede  daughters. 

A  fair  statement  of  the  case,  therefore,  is  somewhat 
as  follows:  The  lower  and  laboring  classes  of  Japan 
seem  to  have  more  visible  affection  for  their  children 
than  the  same  classes  in  the  Occident.    AmouiJ-  the  mid- 


LOVE   FOR    CHILDREN 


99 


die  and  upper  classes,  however,  the  balance  is  in  favor 
of  the  West.  In  the  East,  while,  without  doubt,  there 
always  has  been  and  is  now  a  pure  and  natural  affection, 
it  is  also  true  that  this  natural  affection  has  been  more 
mixed  with  utilitarian  considerations  than  in  the  West. 
Christian  Japanese,  however,  differ  little  from  Christian 
Americans  in  lliis  respect.  The  differences  between  the 
East  and  the  West  are  largely  due  to  the  differing  in- 
dustrial and  family  conditions  induced  by  the  social 
order. 

The  correctness  of  this  general  statement  will  per- 
haps be  better  appreciated  if  we  consider  in  detail  some 
of  the  facts  of  Japanese  family  life.  Let  us  notice  first 
the  very  loose  ties,  as  they  seem  to  us,  holding  the  Jap- 
anese family  together.  It  is  one  of  the  constant  wonders 
to  us  Westerners  how  families  can  break  up  into  frag- 
ments, as  they  constantly  do.  One  third  of  the  mar- 
riages end  in  divorce;  and  in  case  of  divorce,  the  children 
all  stay  with  the  father's  family.  It  would  seem  as  if  the 
love  of  the  mother  for  her  children  could  not  be  very 
strong  where  divorce  under  such  a  condition  is  so  com- 
mon. Or,  perhaps,  it  would  be  truer  to  say  that  divorce 
would  be  far  more  frequent  than  it  is  but  for  the  moth- 
er's love  for  her  children.  For  I  am  assured  that  many  a 
mother  endures  most  distressing  conditions  rather  than 
leave  her  children.  Furthermore,  the  way  in  which  par- 
ents allow  their  children  to  leave  the  home  and  then 
fail  to  write  or  communicate  with  them,  for  months  or 
even  years  at  a  time,  is  incomprehensible  if  the  parental 
love  were  really  strong.  And  still  further,  the  way  in 
which  concubines  are  brought  into  the  home,  causing 
confusion  and  discord,  is  a  very  striking  evidence 
of  the  lack  of  a  deep  love  on  the  part  of  the 
father  for  the  mother  of  his  children  and  even  for  his  own 
legitimate  children.  One  would  expect  a  father  who 
really  loved  his  children  to  desire  and  plan  for  their  le- 
gitimacy ;  but  the  children  by  his  concubines  are  not  "  ipso 
facto  "  recognized  as  legal.  One  more  evidence  in  this 
direction  is  the  frequency  of  adoption  and  of  separation. 
Adoption  in  Japan  is  largely,  though  by  no  means  ex- 
clusively, the  adoption  of  an  adult;  the  cases  where 


100       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

a  child  is  adopted  by  a  childless  couple  from  love  of 
children  are  rare,  as  compared  with  similar  cases  in  the 
United  States,  so  far,  at  least,  as  my  observation  goes.  I 
recently  heard  of  a  conversation  on  personal  financial 
matters  between  a  number  of  Christian  evangelists. 
After  mutual  comparisons  they  agreed  that  one  of  their 
number  was  more  fortunate  than  the  rest  in  that  he  did 
not  have  to  support  his  mother.  On  inquiring  into  the 
matter,  the  missionary  learned  that  this  evangelist,  on 
becoming  a  Buddhist  priest  many  years  before,  had  se- 
cured from  the  government,  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  land,  exemption  from  this  duty.  When  he  became 
a  Christian  it  did  not  seem  to  occur  to  him  that  it  was 
his  duty  and  his  privilege  to  support  his  indigent 
mother.  I  may  add  that  this  idea  has  since  occurred  to 
him  and  he  is  acting  upon  it. 

Infanticide  throws  a  rather  lurid  light  on  Japanese 
affection.  First,  in  regard  to  the  facts:  Mr.  Ishii's  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  need  of  an  orphan  asylum  by 
hearing  how  a  child,  both  of  whose  parents  had  died  of 
cholera,  was  on  the  point  of  being  buried  alive  with  its 
dead  mother  by  heartless  neighbors  when  it  was  rescued 
by  a  fisherman.  Certain  parts  of  Japan  have  been  no- 
torious from  of  old  for  this  practice.  In  Tosa  the  evil  was 
so  rampant  that  a  society  for  its  prevention  has  been  in 
existence  for  many  years.  It  helps  support  children  of 
poor  parents  who  might  be  tempted  to  dispose  of  them 
criminally.  In  that  province  from  January  to  j\Iarch, 
1898,  I  was  told  that  "  only  "  four  cases  of  conviction 
for  this  crime  were  reported.  The  registered  annual 
birth  rate  of  certain  villages  has  increased  from  40-501 
to  75-80,  and  this  without  any  immigration  from  outside. 
The  reason  assigned  is  the  diminution  of  infanticide. 

In  speaking  of  infanticide  in  Japan,  let  us  not  forget 
that  every  race  and  nation  has  been  guilty  of  the  same 
crime,  and  has  continued  to  be  guilty  of  it  imtil  deliv- 
ered by  Christianity. 

Widespread  infanticide  proves  a  wide  lack  of  natural 
afTection.  Poverty  is,  of  course,  the  common  plea. 
Yet  infanticide  has  been  practiced  not  so  much  by  the 
desperately  poor  as  by  small  land-holders.  The  amount 


LOVE    FOR    CHILDREN  loi 

of  farming  land  possessed  by  each  family  was  strictly 
limited  and  could  feed  only  a  given  number  of  mouths. 
Should  the  family  exceed  that  number,  all  would  be  in- 
volved in  poverty,  for  the  members  beyond  that  limit 
did  not  have  the  liberty  to  travel  in  search  of  new  occu- 
pation. Infanticide,  therefore,  bore  direct  relation  to  the 
rigid  economic  nature  of  the  old  social  order. 

Whatever,  therefore,  be  the  point  of  view  from  which 
we  study  the  question  of  Japanese  affection  for  children, 
we  see  that  it  was  intimately  connected  with  the  nature 
of  the  social  order.  Whether  we  judge  such  affection  or 
its  lack  to  be  a  characteristic  trait  of  Japanese  nature, 
we  must  still  maintain  that  it  is  not  an  inherent  trait 
of  the  race  nature,  but  only  a  characteristic  depending 
for  its  greater  or  less  development  on  the  nature  of  the 
social  order. 


IX 

MARITAL  LOVE 

IF  the  Japanese  are  a  conspicuously  emotional  race, 
as  is  commonly  believed,  we  should  naturally  expect 
this  characteristic  to  manifest  itself  in  a  marked 
degree  in  the  relation  of  the  sexes.  Curiously  enough, 
however,  such  does  not  seem  to  be  the  case.  So  slight  a 
place  does  the  emotion  of  sexual  love  have  in  Japanese 
family  life  that  some  have  gone  to  the  extreme  of  deny- 
ing it  altogether.  In  his  brilliant  but  fallacious  volume, 
entitled  "  Tlie  Soul  of  the  Far  East,"  Mr.  Percival 
Lowell  states  that  the  Japanese  do  not  "  fall  in  love." 
The  correctness  of  this  statement  we  shall  consider  in 
connection  with  the  argument  for  Japanese  imperson- 
ality. That  "  falling  in  love  "  is  not  a  recognized  part  of 
the  family  system,  and  that  marriage  is  arranged  regard- 
less not  only  of  love,  but  even  of  mutual  acquaintance, 
are  indisputable  facts. 

Let  us  confine  our  attention  here  to  Japanese  post- 
marital  emotional  characteristics.  Do  Japanese  hus- 
bands love  their  wives  and  wives  their  husbands?  We 
have  already  seen  that  in  the  text-book  for  Japanese 
women,  the  "  Onna  Daigaku,"  not  one  word  is  said 
about  love.  It  may  be  stated  at  once  that  love  between 
husband  and  wife  is  almost  as  consjMcuously  lacking  in 
practice  as  in  precept.  In  no  regard,  perhaps,  is  the 
contrast  between  the  East  and  the  West  more  striking 
than  the  respective  ideas  concerning  woman  and  mar- 
riage. The  one  counts  woman  the  equal,  if  not  the  su- 
perior of  man;  the  other  looks  down  upon  her  as  man's 
inferior  in  every  respect;  the  one  considers  profound 
love  as  the  only  true  condition  of  marriage;  the  other 
thinks  of  love  as  essentially  impiu-e,  beneath  the  dignity 
of  a  true  man,  and  not  to  be  taken  into  consideratiiMi 
102 


MARITAL   LOVE  103 

when  marriage  is  contemplated;  in  the  one,  the  two 
persons  most  interested  have  most  to  say  in  the  matter; 
in  the  other,  they  have  the  least  to  say;  in  the  one,  a 
long  and  intimate  previous  acquaintance  is  deemed  im- 
portant; in  the  other,  the  need  for  such  an  acquaintance 
does  not  receive  a  second  thought;  in  the  one,  the 
wife  at  once  takes  her  place  as  the  queen  of  the  home; 
in  the  other,  she  enters  as  the  domestic  for  her  husband 
and  his  parents;  in  the  one,  the  children  are  hers  as  well 
as  his;  in  the  other,  they  are  his  rather  than  hers,  and  re- 
main with  him  in  case  of  divorce;  in  the  one,  divorce  is 
rare  and  condemned;  in  the  other,  it  is  common  in  the 
extreme;  in  the  one,  it  is  as  often  the  woman  as  the 
man  who  seeks  the  divorce;  in  the  other,  until  most  re- 
cent times,  it  is  the  man  alone  who  divorces  the  wife;  in 
the  one,  the  reasons  for  divorce  are  grave;  in  the  other, 
they  are  often  trivial ;  in  the  one,  the  wife  is  the  "  help- 
mate"; in  the  other,  she  is  the  man's  "plaything";  or, 
at  most,  the  means  for  continuing  the  family  lineage; 
in  the  one,  the  man  is  the  "  husband  ";  in  the  other,  he 
is  the  "  danna  san  "  or  "  teishu  "  (the  lord  or  master); 
in  the  ideal  home  of  the  one,  the  wife  is  the  object  of 
the  husband's  constant  affection  and  solicitous  care;  in 
the  ideal  home  of  the  other,  she  ever  waits  upon  her 
lord,  serves  his  food  for  him,  and  faithfully  sits  up  for 
him  at  night,  however  late  his  return  may  be;  in  the 
one,  the  wife  is  justified  in  resenting  any  unfaithfulness 
or  immorality  on  the  part  of  her  husband;  in  the  other, 
she  is  commanded  to  accept  with  patience  whatever  he 
may  do,  however  many  concubines  he  may  have  in  his 
home  or  elsewhere ;  and  however  immoral  he  may  be,  she 
must  not  be  jealous.  The  following  characterization 
of  the  women  of  Japan  is  presumably  by  one  who  would 
do  them  no  injustice,  having  himself  married  a  Japanese 
wife  (the  editor  of  the  Japan  Mail). 

"  The  woman  of  Japan  is  a  charming  personage  in 
many  ways — gracious,  refined,  womanly  before  every- 
thing, svv'eet-tempered,  unselfish,  virtuous,  a  splendid 
mother,  and  an  ideal  wife  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
master.     But  she  is  virtually  excluded  from  the  whole 


104      EVOLUTION    OF  THE   JAPANESE 

intellectual  life  of  the  nation.  Politics,  art,  literature, 
science,  are  closed  books  to  her.  She  cannot  think  logi- 
cally about  any  of  these  subjects,  express  herself  clearly 
with  reference  to  them,  or  take  an  intellectual  part  in 
conversations  relating-  to  them.  She  is,  in  fact,  totally 
disqualified  to  be  her  husband's  intellectual  companion, 
and  the  inevitable  result  is  that  he  despises  her."  * 

In  face  of  all  these  facts,  it  is  evident  that  the  emo- 
tional element  of  character  which  plays  so  large  a  part 
ill  the  relation  of  the  sexes  in  the  West  has  little,  if  any, 
counterpart  in  the  Far  East.  Where  the  emotional  ele- 
ment does  come  in,  it  is  under  social  condemnation. 
There  are  doubtless  many  happy  marriages  in  Japan, 
if  the  wife  is  faithful  in  her  place  and  fills  it  well;  and 
if  the  master  is  honorable  according  to  the  accepted 
standards,  steady  in  his  business,  not  given  to  wine  or 
women.  But  even  then  the  affection  must  be  different 
from  that  which  prevails  in  the  West.  No  Japanese  wife 
ever  dreams  of  receiving  the  loving  care  from  her  hus- 
band which  is  freely  accorded  her  Western  sister  by 
her  husband. f 

I  wish,  however,  to  add  at  once  that  this  is  a  topic 
about  which  it  is  dangerous  to  dogmatize,  for  the  cus- 
toms of  Japan  demand  that  all  expressions  of  affection 
between  husband  and  wife  shall  be  sedulously  concealed 
from  the  outer  world.  I  can  easily  believe  that  there  is 
no  little  true  affection  existing  between  husband  and 
wife.  A  Japanese  friend  with  whom  I  have  talked  on 
this  subject  expresses  his  belief  that  the  statement  made 
above,  to  the  effect  that  no  Japanese  wife  dreams  of  re- 
ceiving the  loving  care  which  is  expected  by  her  West- 

*/apan  Mail,  June  4,  1898,  p.  586. 

f  If  all  that  has  been  said  above  as  to  the  relative  lack  of  affec- 
tion between  husband  and  wife  is  true,  it  will  help  to  make 
more  credible,  because  more  intelligible,  the  preceding  cliapter 
as  to  the  relative  lack  of  love  for  children.  Where  the  relation 
between  husband  and  wife  is  what  we  have  depicted  it,  where 
the  children  are  systematically  taught  to  feel  for  their  father  re- 
spect rather  than  love,  the  relation  between  the  father  and  the 
children,  or  the  mother  and  the  children,  cannot  be  the  same  as 
in  lands  where  all  these  customs  are  reversed. 


MARITAL    LOVE  105 

ern  sister,  is  doubtless  true  of  Old  Japan,  but  that  there 
has  been  a  great  change  in  this  respect  in  recent  decades; 
and  especially  among  the  Christian  community.  That 
Christians  excel  the  others  with  whom  I  have  come  in 
contact,  has  been  evident  to  me.  But  that  even  they 
are  still  very  different  from  Occidentals  in  this  respect, 
is  also  clear.  Whatever  be  the  affection  lavished  on  the 
wife  in  the  privacy  of  the  home,  she  does  not  receive  in 
public  the  constant  evidence  of  special  regard  and  high 
esteem  which  the  Western  wife  expects  as  her  right. 

How  much  affection  can  be  expressed  by  low  formal 
bows?  The  fact  is  that  Japanese  civilization  has  striven 
to  crush  out  all  signs  of  emotion ;  this  stoicism  is  ex- 
emplified to  a  large  degree  even  in  the  home,  and  under 
circumstances  when  we  should  think  it  impossible.  Kiss- 
ing was  an  unknown  art  in  Japan,  and  it  is  still  un- 
known, except  by  name,  to  the  great  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple. Even  mothers  seldom  kiss  their  infant  children, 
and  when  they  do,  it  is  only  while  the  children  are  very 
young. 

The  question,  however,  which  particularly  interests 
us,  is  as  to  the  explanation  for  these  facts.  Is  the  lack 
of  demonstrative  affection  between  husband  and  wife 
due  to  the  inherent  nature  of  the  Japanese,  or  is  it  not 
due  rather  to  the  prevailing  social  order?  If  a  Jap- 
anese goes  to  America  or  England,  for  a  few  years,  does 
he  maintain  his  cold  attitude  toward  all  women,  and 
never  show  the  slightest  tendency  to  fall  in  love,  or  ex- 
hibit demonstrative  affection?  These  questions  almost 
answer  themselves,  and  with  them  the  main  question  for 
whose  solution  we  are  seeking. 

A  few  concrete  instances  may  help  to  illustrate  the 
generalization  that  these  are  not  fixed  because  racial 
characteristics,  but  variable  ones  dependent  on  the  so- 
cial order.  Many  years  ago  when  the  late  Dr.  Neesima, 
the  founder,  with  Dr.  Davis,  of  the  Doshisha,  was  on 
the  point  of  departure  for  the  United  States  on  account 
of  his  health,  he  made  an  address  to  the  students.  In 
the  course  of  his  remarks  he  stated  that  there  were 
three  principal  considerations  that  made  him  regret  the 
necessity  for  his  departure  at  that  time;  the  first  was 


ic6       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

that  the  Doshisha  was  in  a  most  critical  position;  it  was 
but  starting  on  its  larger  work,  and  he  felt  that  all  its 
friends  should  be  on  hand  to  help  on  the  great  under- 
taking. The  second  was  that  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
his  aged  parents,  whom  he  might  not  find  living  on  his 
return  to  Japan.  The  third  was  his  sorrow  at  leaving 
his  beloved  wife.  This  public  reference  to  his  wife,  and 
especially  to  his  love  for  her,  was  so  extraordinary  that 
it  created  no  little  comment,  not  to  say  scandal;  espe- 
cially obnoxious  was  it  to  many,  because  he  mentioned 
her  after  having  mentioned  his  parents.  In  the  reports 
of  this  speech  given  by  his  friends  to  the  public  press 
no  reference  was  made  to  this  expression  of  love  for 
his  wife.  And  a  few  months  after  his  death,  when  Dr. 
Davis  prepared  a  short  biography  of  Dr.  Neesima,  he 
was  severely  criticised  by  some  of  the  Japanese  for  re- 
producing the  speech  as  Dr.   Neesima  gave  it. 

Shortly  after  my  first  arrival  in  Japan,  I  was  walking 
home  from  church  one  day  with  an  English-speaking- 
Japanese,  who  had  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  for- 
eigners. Suddenly,  without  any  introduction,  he  re- 
marked that  he  did  not  comprehend  how  the  men  of  the 
West  could  endure  such  tyranny  as  was  exercised  over 
them  by  their  wives.  I,  of  course,  asked  what  he  meant. 
He  then  said  that  he  had  seen  me  buttoning  my  wife's 
shoes.  I  should  explain  that  on  calling  on  the  Japanese, 
in  their  homes,  it  is  necessary  that  we  leave  our  shoes 
at  the  door,  as  the  Japanese  invariably  do;  this  is,  of 
course,  awkward  for  foreigners  who  wear  shoes;  espe- 
cially so  is  the  necessity  of  putting  them  on  again.  The 
difficulty  is  materially  increased  by  the  invariably  high 
step  at  the  front  door.  It  is  hard  enough  for  a  man  to 
kneel  down  on  the  step  and  reach  for  his  shoes  and  then 
])ut  them  on;  much  more  so  is  it  for  a  woman.  And  after 
the  shoes  are  on,  there  is  no  suitable  place  on  which  to 
rest  the  foot  for  buttoning  and  tying.  I  used,  there- 
fore, very  gladly  to  help  my  wife  with  hers.  Yet,  so  con- 
trary to  Japanese  precedent  was  this  act  of  mine  that 
this  well-educated  gentleman  and  Christian,  who  had 
had  much  intercourse  with  foreigners,  could  not  sec  in 
it  anything  except  the  imperious  command  of  the  wife 


MARITAL    LOVE  107 

and  the  slavish  obedience  of  the  husband.  His  concep- 
tion of  the  relation  between  the  Occidental  husband  and 
wife  is  best  described  as  tyranny  on  the  part  of  the 
wife. 

One  of  the  early  shocks  I  received  on  this  gen- 
eral subject  was  due  to  the  discovery  that  whenever  my 
wife  took  my  arm  as  we  walked  the  street  to  and  from 
church,  or  elsewhere,  the  people  looked  at  us  in  surprised 
displeasure.  Such  public  manifestation  of  intimacy  was 
to  be  expected  from  libertines  alone,  and  from  these 
only  when  they  were  more  or  less  under  the  influence 
of  drink.  Whenever  a  Japanese  man  walks  out  with 
his  wife,  which,  by  the  way,  is  seldom,  he  invariably 
steps  on  ahead,  leaving  her  to  follow,  carrying  the  par- 
cels, if  there  are  any.  A  child,  especially  a  son,^  may 
walk  at  his  side,  but  not  his  wife. 

Let  me  give  a  few  more  illustrations  to  show  how  the 
present  family  life  of  the  Japanese  checks  the  full  and 
free  development  of  the  affections.  In  one  of  our  out- 
stations  I  but  recently  found  a  young  woman  in  a 
distressing  condition.  Her  parents  had  no  sons,  and 
consequently,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  land, 
they  had  adopted  a  son,  who  became  the  husband 
of  their  eldest  daughter;  the  man  proved  a  rascal, 
and  the  family  was  glad  when  he  decided  that  he 
did  not  care  to  be  their  son  any  longer.  Shortly  after 
his  departure  a  child  was  born  to  the  daughter; 
but,  according  to  the  law,  she  had  no  husband,  and 
consequently  the  child  must  either  be  registered  as 
illegitimate,  or  be  fraudulently  registered  as  the  child  of 
the  mother's  father.  There  is  much  fraudulent  registra- 
tion, the  children  of  concubines  are  not  recognized  as 
legitimate;  yet  it  is  common  to  register  such  children 
as  those  of  the  regular  wife,  especially  if  she  has  few  or 
none  of  her  own. 

An  evangelist  who  worked  long  in  Kyushu  was  al- 
ways in  great  financial  trouble  because  of  the  fact  that 
he  "had  to  support  two  mothers,  besides  giving  aid  to  his 
father,  who  had  married  a  third  wife.  The  first  was  his 
own  mother,  who  had  been  divorced,  but,  as  she  had  no 
home,   the    son   took    her    to    his.      When    the    father 


io8       EVOLUTION    OF   THE    JAPANESE 

divorced  his  second  wife,  the  son  was  induced  to  take 
care  of  her  also.  Another  evangeUst,  with  whom  I  had 
much  to  do,  was  the  adopted  son  of  a  scheming  old 
man;  it  seems  that  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  present  era 
the  eldest  son  of  a  family  was  exempt  from  military- 
draft.  It  often  happened,  therefore,  tliat  families  who 
had  no  sons  could  obtain  large  sums  of  money  from 
those  who  had  younger  sons  whom  they  wished  to  have 
adopted  for  the  purpose  of  escaping  the  draft.  This 
evangelist,  while  still  a  boy,  was  adopted  into  such  a 
family,  and  a  certain  sum  was  fixed  upon  to  be  paid  at 
some  time  in  the  future.  But  the  adopted  son  proved 
so  pleasing  to  the  adopting  father  that  he  did  not  ask 
for  the  money;  by  some  piece  of  legerdemain,  however, 
he  succeeded  in  adopting  a  second  son,  who  paid  him  the 
desired  money.  After  some  years  the  first  adopted 
son  became  a  Christian,  and  then  an  evangelist,  both 
steps  being  taken  against  the  wishes  of  the  adopting 
father.  The  father  finally  said  that  he  would  forego  all 
relations  to  the  son,  and  give  him  back  his  original 
name,  provided  the  son  would  pay  the  original  sum  that 
had  been  agreed  on,  plus  the  interest,  which  altogether 
would,  at  that  time,  amount  to  several  hundred  yen. 
This  was,  of  course,  impossible.  The  negotiations 
dragged  on  for  three  or  four  years.  Meanwhile,  the 
young  man  fell  in  love  with  a  young  girl,  whom  he 
finally  married;  as  he  was  still  the  son  of  his  adopting 
father,  he  could  not  have  his  wife  registered  as  his  wife, 
for  the  old  man  had  another  girl  in  view  for  him  an^l 
would  not  consent  to  this  arrangement.  And  so  the  mat- 
ter dragged  for  several  months  more.  Unless  the  matter 
could  be  arranged,  any  children  born  to  them  must  be 
registered  as  illegitimate.  At  this  point  I  was  con- 
sulted and,  for  the  first  time,  learned  the  details  of  the 
case.  Further  consultations  resulted  in  an  agreement 
as  to  the  sum  to  be  paid;  the  adopted  son  was  released, 
and  re-registered  under  his  newly  acquired  name  and  for 
the  first  time  his  marriage  became  legal.  The  confusion 
and  suffering  brought  into  the  family  by  this  practice  of 
adoption  and  of  separation  are  almost  endless. 

The  number  of  cases  in  which  beautiful  ami  accom- 


MARITAL   LOVE  109 

plished  young  women  have  been  divorced  by  brutal  and 
licentious  husbands  is  appalling.  I  know  several  such. 
What  wonder  that  Christians  and  others  are  constantly 
laying  emphasis,  in  public  lectures  and  sermons  and  pri- 
vate talks,  on  the  crying  need  of  reform  in  marriage  and 
in  the  home  ? 

Throughout  the  land  the  newspapers  are  discussing 
the  pros  and  cons  of  monogamy  and  polygamy.  In  Jan- 
uary of  1898  the  Jiji  Shimpo,  one  of  the  leading  daily 
papers  of  Tokyo,  had  a  series  of  articles  on  the  subject 
from  the  pen  of  one  of  the  most  illustrious  educators  of 
New  Japan,  Mr.  Fukuzawa.  His  school,  the  "  Keio 
Gijiku,"  has  educated  more  thousands  of  young  men 
than  any  other,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  is  a  pri- 
vate institution.  Though  not  a  Christian  himself,  nor 
making  any  professions  of  advocating  Christianity,  yet 
Mr.  Fukuzawa  has  come  out  strongly  in  favor  of  mo- 
nogamy. His  description  of  the  existing  social  and  fam- 
ily life  is  striking,  not  to  say  sickening.  If  I  mistake  not, 
it'  is  he  who  tells  of  a  certain  noble  lady  who  shed  tears 
at  the  news  of  the  promotion  of  her  husband  in  official 
rank;  and  when  questioned  on  the  matter  she  confessed 
that,  with  added  salary,  he  would  add  to  the  number  of 
his  concubines  and  to  the  frequency  of  his  intercourse 
with  famous  dancing  and  singing  girls. 

The  distressing  sliate  of  family  life  may  also  be  gath- 
ered from  the  large  numbers  of  public  and  secret  prosti- 
tutes that  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  large  cities,  and 
the  singing  girls  of  nearly  every  town.  According  to 
popular  opinion,  their  number  is  rapidly  increasing. 
Though  this  general  subject  trenches  on  morality  rather 
than  on  the  topic  immediately  before  us,  yet  it  throws  a 
lurid  light  on  this  question  also.  It  lets  us  see,  perhaps, 
more  clearly  than  we  could  in  any  other  way,  how  de- 
ficient is  the  average  home  life  of  the  people.  A  pro- 
fessing Christian,  a  man  of  wide  experience  and  social 
standing,  not  long  since  seriously  argued  at  a  meeting 
of  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  that  dancing 
and  singing  girls  are  a  necessary  part  of  Japanese  civili- 
zation to-day.  He  argued  that  they  supply  the  men 
with  that  female  element  in  social  life  which  the  ordi- 


no        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

nary  woman  cannot  provide;  were  the  average  wives 
and  daughters  sufificiently  accomphshed  to  share  in  the 
social  hfe  of  the  men  as  they  are  in  the  West,  dancing 
and  singing  girls,  being  needless,  would  soon  cease 
to  be. 

One  further  question  in  this  connection  merits  our 
attention.  How  are  we  to  account  for  an  order  of  so- 
ciety that  allows  so  little  scope  for  the  natural  afifections 
of  the  heart,  unless  by  saying  that  that  order  is  the  true 
expression  of  their  nature?  Must  w^e  not  say  that 
the  element  of  affection  in  the  present  social  order  is 
deficient  because  the  Jajjanese  themselves  are  naturally 
deficient?  The  question  seems  more  difficult  than  it 
really  is. 

In  the  first  place,  the  affectionate  relation  existing 
between  husbands  and  wives  and  between  parents  and 
children,  in  Western  lands,  is  a  product  of  relatively  re- 
cent times.  In  his  exhaustive  work  on  "  The  History 
of  Human  Marriage,"  W^estermarck  makes  this  very 
plain.  Wherever  the  woman  is  counted  a  slave,  is 
bought  and  sold,  is  considered  as  merely  a  means  of 
bearing  children  to  the  family,  or  in  any  essential  way  is 
looked  down  upon,  there  high  forms  of  affection  are  by 
the  nature  of  the  case  impossible,  though  some  affection 
doubtless  exists;  it  necessarily  attains  only  a  rudimen- 
tary development.  Now  it  is  conspicuous  that  the  con- 
ception of  the  nature  and  purpose  of  woman,  as  held  in 
the  Orient,  has  always  been  debasing  to  her.  Though 
individual  women  might  rise  above  their  assigned  posi- 
tion the  whole  social  order,  as  established  by  the  leaders 
of  thought,  was  against  her.  The  statement  that  there 
was  a  primitive  condition  of  society  in  Japan  in  which 
the  affectionate  relations  between  husband  and  wife 
now  known  in  the  West  prevailed,  is.  I  think,  a  mistake. 

We  must  remember,  in  the  second  place,  what  careful 
students  of  human  evolution  have  pointed  out,  that 
those  tribes  and  races  in  which  the  family  was  most 
completely  consolidated,  that  is  to  say.  those  in  which 
the  power  of  the  father  was  absolute,  were  the  ones  to 
gain  the  victory  over  their  competitors.  The  reason  for 
this  is  too  obvious  to  recjuirc  even  a  statement.    Every. 


MARITAL   LOVE  iii 

conquering  race  has  accordingly  developed  the  "  patria 
potestas  "  to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  Now  one  general 
peculiarity  of  the  Orient  is  that  that  stage  of  develop- 
ment has  remained  to  this  day;  it  has  not  experienced 
those  modifications  and  restrictions  which  have  arisen 
in  the  West.  The  national  government  dealt  with  fam- 
ilies and  clans,  not  with  individuals,  as  the  final  social 
unit.  In  the  West,  however,  the  individual  has  become 
the  civil  unit;  the  "patria  potestas"  has  thus  been  all 
but  lost.  This,  added  to  religious  and  ethical  consider- 
ations, has  given  women  and  children  an  ever  higher 
place  both  in  society  and  in  the  home.  Had  this 
loss  of  authority  by  the  father  been  accompanied  with 
a  weakening  of  the  nation,  it  would  have  been  an  injury; 
but,  in  the  West,  his  authority  has  been  transferred  to 
the  nation.  These  considerations  serve  to  render  more 
intelligible  and  convincing  the  main  proposition  of 
these  chapters,  that  the  distinctive  emotional  character- 
istics of  the  Japanese  are  not  inherent;  they  are  the  re- 
sults of  the  social  and  industrial  order;  as  this  order 
changes,  they  too  will  surely  change.  The  entire  civili- 
zation of  a  land  takes  its  leading,  if  not  its  dominant, 
color  from  the  estimate  set  by  the  people  as  a  whole  on 
the  value  of  human  life.  The  relatively  late  develop- 
ment of  the  tender  affections,  even  in  the  West,  is  due 
doubtless  to  the  extreme  slowness  with  which  the  idea  of 
the  inherent  value  of  a  human  being,  as  such,  has  taken 
root,  even  though  it  was  clearly  taught  by  Christ.  But 
the  leaven  of  His  teaching  has  been  at  work  for  these 
hundreds  of  years,  and  now  at  last  we  are  beginning  to 
see  its  real  meaning  and  its  vital  relation  to  the  entire 
progress  of  man.  It  may  be  questioned  whether  Christ 
gave  any  more  important  impetus  to  the  development 
of  civilization  than  by  His  teaching  in  regard  to  the  in- 
estimable worth  of  man,  grounding  it,  as  He  did,  on 
man's  divine  sonship.  Those  nations  which  insist  on 
valuing  human  life  only  by  the  utilitarian  standard,  and 
which  consequently  keep  woman  in  a  degraded  place,  in- 
sisting on  concubinage  and  all  that  it  implies,  are  sure  to 
wane  before  those  nations  which  loyally  adopt  and  prac- 
tice the  higher  ideals  of  human  worth.    The  weakness 


112        EVOLUTION  OF  THE   JAPANESE 

of  heathen  lands  arises  in  no  sHght  degree  from  their 
cheap  estimate  of  human  Ufe. 

In  Japan,  until  the  Meiji  era,  human  life  was  cheap. 
For  criminals  of  the  military  classes,  suicide  was  the 
honorable  method  of  leaving  this  world;  the  lower 
orders  of  society  suffered  loss  of  life  at  the  hands  of  the 
military  class  without  redress.  The  whole  nation  ac- 
cepted the  low  standards  of  human  value;  woman  was 
valued  chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  on  a  utilitarian  basis,  that, 
namely,  of  bearing  children,  doing  house  and  farm  work, 
and  giving  men  pleasure.  So  far  as  I  know,  not  among 
all  the  teachings  of  Confucius  or  Buddha  was  the 
supreme  value  of  human  life,  as  such,  once  suggested, 
much  less  any  adequate  conception  of  the  worth  and 
nature  of  woman.  The  entire  social  order  was  con- 
structed without  these  two  important  truths. 

By  a  great  effort,  however,  Japan  has  introduced  a 
new  social  order,  with  unprecedented  rapidity.  By  one 
revolution  it  has  established  a  set  of  laws  in  which  the 
equality  of  all  men  before  the  law  is  recognized  at  least; 
for  the  first  time  in  Oriental  history,  woman  is  given  the 
right  to  seek  divorce.  The  experiment  is  now  being 
made  on  a  great  scale  as  to  whether  the  new  social  order 
adopted  by  the  rulers  can  induce  those  ideas  among  the 
people  at  large  which  will  insure  its  performance.  Can 
the  mere  legal  enactments  which  embody  the  principles 
of  human  equality  and  the  value  of  human  life,  regard- 
less of  sex,  beget  those  fundamental  conceptions  on 
which  alone  a  steady  and  lasting  government  can  rest? 
Can  Japan  really  step  into  the  circle  of  Western 
nations,  without  abandoning  her  pagan  religions 
and  pushing  onward  into  Christian  monotheism  with 
all  its  corollaries  as  to  the  relations  and  mutual 
duties  of  man?  All  earnest  men  are  crying  out  for  a 
strengthening  of  the  moral  life  of  the  nation  through 
the  reform  of  the  family  and  are  proclaiming  the  neces- 
sity of  monogamy;  but,  aside  from  the  Christians,  none 
appear  to  see  how  this  is  to  be  done.  Even  Mr, 
Fukuzawa  says  that  the  first  stcj)  in  the  reform  of  the 
family  and  the  establishment  of  monogamy  is  to  develop 
public    sentiment    against    prostitution    and    plural    or 


I 


MARITAL   LOVE  113 

illegal  marriage;  and  the  way  to  do  this  is  first  to  make 
evil  practices  secret.  This,  he  says,  is  more  important 
than  to  give  women  a  higher  education.  He  does  not 
see  that  Christianity  with  its  conceptions  of  immediate 
responsibility  of  the  individual  to  God,  the  loving 
Heavenly  Father,  and  of  the  infinite  value  of  each  human 
soul,  thus  doing  away  with  the  utilitarian  scale  for  meas- 
uring both  men  and  women,  together  with  its  concep- 
tions of  the  relations  of  the  sexes  and  of  man  to  man, 
can  alone  supply  that  foundation  for  all  the  elements  of 
the  new  social  order,  intellectual  and  emotional,  which 
will  make  it  workable  and  permanent,  and  of  which 
monogamy  is  but  one  element.*      He  does  not  see  that 

*The  effect  of  Christian  missions  cannot  be  measured  by  the 
numbers  of  those  who  are  to  be  counted  on  the  church  rolls  ; 
almost  unconsciously  the  nation  is  absorbing  Christian  ideals 
from  the  hundreds  of  Christian  missionaries  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  Christian  natives.  The  necessities  of  the  new  social 
order  make  their  teachings  intelligible  and  acceptable  as  the 
older  social  order  did  not  and  could  not.  This  accounts  for  the 
astonishing  change  in  the  anti-Christian  spirit  of  the  Japanese. 
This  spirit  did  not  cease  at  once  on  the  introduction  of  the  new 
social  order,  nor  indeed  is  it  now  entirely  gone.  But  the  change 
from  the  Japan  of  thirty  years  ago  to  the  "japan  of  to-day,  in  its 
attitude  toward  Christianity,  is  more  marked  than  that  of  any 
great  nation  in  history.  A  similar  change  in  the  Roman  Empire 
took  place,  but  it  required  three  hundred  years.  This  change 
in  Japan  may  accordingly  be  called  truly  miraculous,  not  in  the 
sense,  however,  of  a  result  without  a  cause,  for  the  causes  are 
well  understood. 

Among  the  Christians,  especially,  the  old  order  is  rapidly  giv- 
ing way  to  the  new.  Christianity  has  brought  a  new  conception 
of  woman  and  her  place  in  the  home  and  her  relation  to  her  hus- 
band. Japanese  Christian  girls,  and  recently  non-Christian 
girls,  are  seeking  an  education  which  shall  fit  them  for  their  en- 
larging life.  Many  of  the  more  Christian  young  men  do  not 
want  heathen  wives,  with  their  low  estimate  of  themselves  and 
their  duties,  and  they  are  increasingly  unwilling  to  marry  those 
of  whom  they  know  nothing  and  for  whom  they  care  not  at  all. 
Already  the  idea  that  love  is  the  only  safe  foundation  for  the 
home  is  beginning  to  take  root  in  Japan.  This  changing  ideal 
is  bringing  marked  social  changes.  In  some  churches  an  intro- 
duction committee  is  appointed  whose  special  function  is  to 
introduce  marriageable  persons  and  to  hold  social  meetings 
where  the  young  people  may  become  acquainted.  Here  an  im- 
portant evolution  in  the  social  order  is  taking  place  before  our 
eyes,  but  not  a  few  of  the  world's  wise  men  are  too  exalted  to 
see  it.     Love  and  demonstrative  affection  between  husband  and 


114       EVOLUTION   OF  THE   JAPANESE 

representative  government  and  popular  rights  cannot 
stand  for  any  length  of  time  on  any  other  foundation. 

wife  will  doubtless  become  as  characteristic  of  Japan  in  the 
future  as  their  absence  has  been  characteristic  in  the  past.  To 
recapitulate  :  these  distinctive  cliaracteristics  of  the  emotional 
life  of  the  Japanese  might  at  first  seem  to  be  so  deep-rooted  as 
to  be  inherent,  vet  they  are  really  due  to  the  ideas  and  customs 
of  the  social  order,  and  are  liable  to  change  with  any  new  sys- 
tem of  ideas  and  customs  that  may  arise.  The  higher  develop- 
ment of  the  emotional  life  of  the  Japanese  waits  now  on  the 
reorganization  of  the  family  life  ;  this  rests  on  a  new  idea  as  to 
the  place  and  value  of  woman  as  such  and  as  a  human  being  ; 
this  in  turn  rests  on  the  wide  acceptance  of  Christian  ideals  as 
to  God  and  their  mutual  relations.  It  involves,  likewise,  new 
ideals  as  to  man's  final  destiny.  In  Japan's  need  of  these  Christian 
ideals  we  find  one  main  ground  and  justification,  if  justification 
be  needed,  for  missionary  enterprise  among  this  Eastern  people. 


X 

CHEERFULNESS  —  INDUSTRY  —  TRUTHFUL. 
NESS— SUSPICIOUSNESS 

MANY  writers  have  dwelt  with  dehght  on  the 
cheerful  disposition  that  seems  so  common  in 
Japan.  Lightness  of  heart,  freedom  from  all 
anxiety  for  the  future,  living  chiefly  in  the  present,  these 
and  kindred  features  are  pictured  in  glowing  terms. 
And,  on  the  whole,  these  pictures  are  true  to  life.  The 
many  fiower  festivals  are  made  occasions  for  family 
picnics  when  all  care  seems  thrown  to  the  wind.  There 
is  a  simplicity  and  a  freshness  and  a  freedom  from  worry 
that  is  delightful  to  see.  But  it  is  also  remarked  that 
a  change  in  this  regard  is  beginning  to  be  observed. 
The  coming  in  of  Western  machinery,  methods  of  gov- 
ernment, of  trade  and  of  education,  is  introducing  cus- 
toms and  cares,  ambitions  and  activities,  that  militate 
against  the  older  ways.  Doubtless,  this  too  is  true.  If 
so,  it  but  serves  to  establish  the  general  proposition  of 
these  pages  that  the  more  outstanding  national  char- 
acteristics are  largely  the  result  of  special  social  condi- 
tions, rather  than  of  inherent  national  character. 

The  cheerful  disposition,  so  often  seen  and  admired 
by  the  Westerner,  is  the  cheerfulness  of  children.  In 
many  respects  the  Japanese  are  relatively  undeveloped. 
This  is  due  to  the  nature  of  their  social  order  during  the 
past.  The  government  has  been  largely  paternal  in 
form  and  fully  so  in  theory.  Little  has  been  left  to  in- 
dividual initiative  or  responsibility.  Wherever  such  a 
system  has  been  dominant  and  the  perfectly  accepted 
order,  the  inevitable  result  is  just  such  a  state  of  simple, 
childish  cheerfulness  as  we  find  in  Japan.  It  constitutes 
that  golden  age  sung  by  the  poets  of  every  land.  But 
being  the  cheerfulness  of  children,  the  happiness  of  im- 
"5 


ii6        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE     • 

maturity,  it  is  bound  to  change  with  growth,  to  be  lost 
with  coming  maturity. 

Yet  the  Japanese  are  by  no  means  given  up  to  a  cheer- 
ful view  of  life.  Many  an  individual  is  morose  and 
dejected  in  the  extreme.  Tliis  disposition  is  ever  stimu- 
lated by  the  religious  teachings  of  Buddhism.  Its  great 
message  has  been  the  evanescent  character  of  the 
present  life.  Life  is  not  worth  living,  it  urges;  though 
life  may  have  some  pleasures,  the  total  result  is  disap- 
pointment and  sorrow.  Buddhism  has  found  a  warm 
welcome  in  the  hearts  of  many  Japanese.  For  more 
than  a  thousand  years  it  has  been  exercising  a  potent  in- 
fluence on  their  thoughts  and  lives.  Yet  how  is  this 
consistent  with  the  cheerful  disposition  which  seems  so 
characteristic  of  Japan?  The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Pessimism  is  by  its  very  nature  separative,  isolating, 
silent.  Those  oppressed  by  it  do  not  enter  into  public 
joys.  They  hide  themselves  in  monasteries,  or  in  the 
home.  The  result  is  that  by  its  very  nature  the  actual 
pessimism  of  Japan  is  not  a  conspicuous  feature  of 
national  character.  The  judgment  that  all  Japanese  are 
cheerful  rests  on  shallow  grounds.  Because,  forsooth, 
millions  on  holidays  bear  that  appearance,  and  because 
on  ordinary  occasions  the  average  man  and  woman 
seem  cheerful  and  happy,  the  conclusion  is  reached  that 
all  are  so.  No  efifort  is  made  to  learn  of  those  whose  lives 
arc  spent  in  sadness  and  isolation.  I  am  convinced  that 
the  Japan  of  old,  for  all  its  apparent  cheer,  had  likewise 
its  side  of  deep  tragedy.  Conditions  of  life  that  struck 
down  countless  individuals,  and  mental  conditions  which 
made  Buddhism  so  popular,  both  point  to  this  conclu- 
sion. 

Again  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
prominence  of  children  and  young  people  is  in  part  the 
cause  of  the  ai^pearance  of  general  happiness.  Tlie  Japa- 
nese live  on  the  street  as  no  Western  people  do.  The 
stores  and  workshops  are  the  homes;  when  these  are 
open,  the  homes  are  open.  When  the  children  go  out 
of  the  house  to  play  they  use  the  streets,  for  ihcy  seldom 
have  yards.  Here  they  gather  in  great  numbers  and 
play    most   enthusiastically,    utterly    regardless   of   the 


CHEERFULNESS— INDUSTRY  1 1 7 

passers-by,  for  these  latter  are  all  on  foot  or  in  jinriki- 
shas,  and,  consequently,  never  cause  the  children  any 
alarm. 

The  Japanese  give  the  double  impression  of  being 
industrious  and  diligent  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the 
other,  of  being  lazy  and  utterly  indifferent  to  the  lapse  of 
time.  The  long  hours  during  which  they  keep  at  work 
is  a  constant  wonder  to  the  Occidental.  I  have  often 
been  amazed  in  Fukuoka  to  find  stores  and  workshops 
open,  apparently  in  operation,  after  ten  and  sometimes 
even  until  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  while  blacksmiths 
and  carpenters  and  wheelwrights  would  be  working 
away  as  if  it  were  morning.  Many  of  the  factories 
recently  started  keep  very  long  hours.  Indeed  most  of 
the  cotton  mills  run  day  and  night,  having  two  sets  of 
workers,  who  shift  their  times  of  labor  every  week. 
Those  who  work  during  the  night  hours  one  week  take 
the  day  hours  the  following  week.  In  at  least  one  such 
factory,  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  the  fifteen  hundred 
girls  who  work  from  six  o'clock  Saturday  evening  until 
six  o'clock  Sunday  morning,  are  then  supposed  to  have 
twenty-four  hours  of  rest  before  they  begin  their  day's 
work  Monday  morning;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they 
must  spend  three  or  four  and  sometimes  five  hours  on 
Sunday  morning  cleaning  up  the  factory. 

In  a  small  silk-weaving  factory  that  I  know  the  cus- 
tomary hours  for  work  were  from  five  in  the  morning 
until  nine  at  night,  seven  days  in  the  week-  The  wife, 
however,  of  the  owner  became  a  Christian.  Through 
her  intervention  time  for  rest  was  secured  on  Sunday 
long  enough  for  a  Bible  class,  which  the  evangelist  of  the 
place  was  invited  to  teach.  After  several  months  of  in- 
struction a  number  of  the  hands  became  Christian,  and 
all  were  sufficiently  interested  to  ask  that  the  whole  of 
the  Sabbath  be  granted  to  them  for  rest;  but  in  order 
that  the  master  might  not  lose  thereby,  they  agreed  to 
begin  work  at  four  each  morning  and  to  work  on  until 
ten  at  night.  With  such  hours  one  would  have  expected 
them  to  fall  at  once  into  their  beds  when  the  work  of  the 
day  was  over.  But  for  many  months,  at  ten  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  my  wife  and  I  heard  them  singing  a  hymn 


ii8       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

or  two  in  their  family  worship  before  retiring  for  the 
night. 

In  certain  weaving  factories  I  have  been  told  that  the 
girls  are  required  to  work  sixteen  hours  a  day;  and  that 
on  Sundays  they  are  allowed  to  have  some  rest,  being 
then  required  to  work  but  ten  hours!  The  diligence  of 
mail  deliverers,  who  always  run  when  on  duty,  the  hours 
of  consecutive  running  frequently  performed  by  jin- 
irikisha  men  (several  have  told  me  that  they  have  made 
over  sixty  miles  in  a  single  day),  the  long  hours  of  per- 
sistent study  by  students  in  the  higher  schools,  and 
many  kindred  facts,  certainly  indicate  a  surprising 
capacity  for  work. 

But  there  are  equally  striking  illustrations  of  an  oppo- 
site nature.  The  farmers  and  mechanics  and  carpenters, 
among  regular  laborers,  and  the  entire  life  of  the  com- 
mon people  in  their  homes,  give  an  impression  of  indif- 
ference to  the  flight  of  time,  if  not  of  absolute  laziness. 
The  workers  seem  ready  to  sit  down  for  a  smoke  and  a 
chat  at  any  hour  of  the  day.  In  the  home  and  in  ordi- 
nary social  life,  the  loss  of  time  seems  to  be  a  matter  of 
no  consequence  whatever.  Polite  palaver  takes  un- 
stinted hours,  and  the  sauntering  of  the  people  through 
the  street  emphasizes  the  impression  that  no  business 
calls  oppress  them. 

In  my  opinion  these  characteristics,  also,  are  due  to 
the  conditions  of  society,  past  and  present,  rather  than 
to  the  inherent  nature  of  the  people  The  old  civiliza- 
tion was  easy-going;  it  had  no  clocks;  it  hardly  knew  the 
time  of  day;  it  never  hastened.  The  hour  was  esti- 
mated and  was  twice  as  long  as  the  modern  hour.  The 
structure  of  society  demanded  the  constant  observance 
of  the  forms  of  etiquette;  this,  with  its  numberless  genu- 
flections and  strikings  of  the  head  on  the  floor,  always 
demanded  time.  Furthermore,  the  very  character  of  the 
footgear  compelled  and  still  compels  a  shuflling,  am- 
bling gait  when  walking  the  streets.  The  clog  is  a 
well-named  hindrance  to  civilization  in  the  waste  of  time 
it  compels.  The  slow-going,  time-ignoring  character- 
istics of  New  Japan  are  social  inlu'rit.-uices  from  feudal 
times,  characteristics    which  are  still  hampering  its  de- 


CHEERFULNESS— INDUSTRY  119 

velopment.  The  industrious  spirit  that  is  to  be  found 
in  so  many  quarters  to-day  is  largely  the  gift  of  the  new 
civilization.  Shoes  are  taking  the  place  of  clogs.  The 
army  and  all  the  police,  on  ordinary  duty,  wear  shoes. 
Even  the  industry  of  the  students  is  largely  due  to  the 
new  conditions  of  student  life.  The  way  in  which  the 
Japanese  are  working  to-day,  and  the  feverish  haste  that 
some  of  them  evince  in  their  work,  shows  that  they  are 
as  capable  as  Occidentals  of  acquiring  the  rush  of 
civilization. 

The  home  life  of  the  people  gives  an  impression  of  list- 
lessness  that  is  in  marked  contrast  to  that  of  the  W.est. 
This  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  house  work  is  rela- 
tively light,  there  being  no  furniture  to  speak  of,  the 
rooms  small,  and  the  cooking  arrangements  quite 
simple.  Housewives  go  about  their  work  with  restful 
deliberation,  which  is  trying,  however,  to  one  in  haste. 
It  is  the  experience  of  the  housekeepers  from  the  West 
that  one  Japanese  domestic  is  able  to  accomplish  from 
a  third  to  a  half  of  what  is  done  by  a  girl  in  Amierica. 
This  is  not  wholly  due  to  slowness  of  movement,  how- 
ever, but  also  to  smallness  of  stature  and  corresponding 
lack  of  strength.  On  the  other  hand,  the  long  hours  of 
work  required  of  women  in  the  majority  of  Japanese 
homes  is  something  appalling.  The  wife  is  expected  to 
be  up  before  the  husband,  to  prepare  his  meals,  and  to 
wait  patiently  till  his  return  at  night,  however  late  that 
may  be.  In  all  except  the  higher  ranks  of  society  she 
takes  entire  care  of  the  children,  except  for  the  help 
which  her  older  children  may  give  her.  During  much 
of  the  time  she  goes  about  her  work  with  an  infant  tied 
to  her  back.  Though  she  does  not  work  hard  at  any 
one  time  (and  is  it  to  be  wondered  at?)  yet  she  works 
long.  Especially  hard  is  the  life  of  the  waiting  girls  in 
the  hotels.  I  have  learned  that,  as  a  rule,  they  are  re- 
quired to  be  up  before  daylight  and  to  remain  on  duty 
until  after  midnight.  In  some  hotels  they  are  allowed 
but  four  or  five  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  The  re- 
sult is,  they  are  often  overcome  and  fall  asleep  while  at 
service.  Sitting  on  the  floor  and  waiting  to  serve  the 
rice,  with  nothing  to  distract  their  thoughts  or  hold 


120       EVOLUTION  OF   THE   JAPANESE 

their  attention,  they  easily  lose  themselves  for  a  few 
moments. 

Two  other  strongly  contrasted  traits  are  found  in  the 
Japanese  character,  absolute  confidence  and  trustfulness 
on  the  one  hand,  and  suspicion  on  the  other.  It  is  the 
universal  testimony  that  the  former  characteristic  is 
rapidly  passing  away;  in  the  cities  it  is  well-nigh  gone. 
But  in  the  country  places  it  is  still  common.  The  idea 
of  making  a  bargain  when  two  persons  entered  upon 
some  particular  piece  of  work,  the  one  as  employer,  the 
other  as  employed,  was  entirely  repugnant  to  the  older 
generation,  since  it  was  assumed  that  their  relations  as 
inferior  and  superior  should  determine  their  financial 
relations;  the  superior  would  do  what  was  right,  and  the 
inferior  should  accept  what  the  superior  might  give 
without  a  question  or  a  murmur.  Among  the  samurai, 
where  the  arrangement  is  between  equals,  bargaining  or 
making  fixed  and  fast  terms  which  will  hold  to  the  end, 
and  which  may  be  carried  to  the  courts  in  case  of  dif- 
ferences, was  a  thing  practically  unknown  in  the  older 
civilization.  Everything  of  a  business  nature  was 
left  to  honor,  and  was  carried  on  in  mutual  confi- 
dence. 

A  few  illustrations  of  this  spirit  of  confidence  from  my 
own  experience  may  not  be  without  interest.  On  first 
coming  to  Japan,  I  found  it  usual  for  a  Japanese  who 
wished  to  take  a  jinrikisha  to  call  the  runner  and  take 
the  ride  without  making  any  bargain,  giving  him  at  the 
end  what  seemed  right.  And  the  men  gencrallv  ac- 
cepted the  payment  without  question.  I  have  found  that 
recently,  unless  there  is  some  definite  understanding 
arrived  at  before  the  ride,  there  is  apt  to  be  some  dis- 
agreement, the  runner  presuming  on  the  hold  he  has,  by 
virtue  of  work  done,  to  get  more  than  is  customary. 
This  is  especially  true  in  case  the  rider  is  a  foreigner. 
Another  set  of  examples  in  which  astonishing  simplicity 
and  confidence  were  manifested  was  in  the  employment 
of  evangelists.  I  have  known  several  instances  in  which 
a  full  corresjiondence  with  an  evangelist  with  regartl  to 
his  employment  was  carried  on.  and  the  settlement 
finally  concluded,  and  the  man  set  to  work  without  a 


CHEERFULNESS— IND  USTRY  1 2 1 

word  said  about  money  matters.  It  need  hardly  be 
said  that  no  foreigner  took  part  in  that  correspond- 
ence. 

The  simple,  childhke  trustfuhiess  of  the  country 
people  is  seen  in  multiplied  ways;  yet  on  the  whole  I 
cannot  escape  the  conviction  that  it  is  a  trustfulness 
which  is  shown  toward  each  other  as  equals.  Certain 
farmers  whom  I  have  employed  to  care  for  a  cow  and  to 
cultivate  the  garden,  while  showing  a  trustful  disposi- 
tion towards  me,  have  not  had  the  same  feelings  toward 
their  fellows  apparently., 

This  confidence  and  trustfulness  were  the  product  of  a 
civilization  resting  on  communalistic  feudalism;  the 
people  were  kept  as  children  in  dependence  on  their 
feudal  lord;  they  had  to  accept  what  he  said  and  did; 
they  were  accustomed  to  that  order  of  things  from  the 
beginning  and  had  no  other  thought;  on  the  whole  too, 
without  doubt,  they  received  regular  and  kindly  treat- 
ment. Furthermore,  there  was  no  redress  for  the 
peasant  in  case  of  harshness;  it  was  always  the  wise 
policy,  therefore,  for  him  to  accept  whatever  was  given 
without  even  the  appearance  of  dissatisfaction.  This 
spirit  was  connected  with  the  dominance  of  the  military 
class.  Simple  trustfulness  was,  therefore,  chiefly  that  of 
the  non-military  classes.  The  trustfulness  of  the 
samurai  sprang  from  their  distinctive  training.  As  al- 
ready mentioned,  when  drawing  up  a  bond  in  feudal 
times,  in  place  of  any  tangible  security,  the  document 
would  read,  "  If  I  fail  to  do  so  and  so,  you  may  laugh  at 
me  in  public." 

Since  the  overthrow  of  communal  feudalism  and  the 
establishment  of  an  individualistic  social  order,  necessi- 
tating personal  ownership  of  property,  and  the  uni- 
versal use  of  money,  trustful  confidence  is  rapidly  passing 
away.  Everything  is  being  more  and  more  accurately 
reduced  to  a  money  basis.  The  old  samurai  scorn  for 
money  seems  to  be  wholly  gone,  an  astonishing  trans- 
formation of  character.  Since  the  disestablishment  of 
the  samurai  class  many  of  them  have  gone  into 
business.  Not  a  few  have  made  tremendous  failures 
for  lack  of  business  instinct,  being  easily  fleeced  by  more 


122       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

cunning-  and  less  honorable  fellows  who  have  played  the 
"  confidence  "  game  most  successfully;  others  have  made 
equally  great  successes  because  of  their  superior  mental 
ability  and  education.  The  government  of  Japan  is  to- 
day chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  descendants  of  the 
samurai  class.  They  have  their  fixed  salaries  and 
everything  is  done  on  a  financial  basis,  payment  being 
made  for  work  only.  The  lazy  and  the  incapable  are 
being  pushed  to  the  wall.  Many  of  the  poorest  and 
most  pitiable  people  of  the  land  to-day  are  the  proud 
sons  of  the  former  aristocracy,  who  glory  in  the  history 
of  their  ancestors,  but  are  not  able  or  willing  to  change 
their  old  habits  of  thought  and  manner  of  life. 

The  American  Board  has  had  a  very  curious,  not  to 
say  disastrous,  experience  with  the  spirit  of  trustful  con- 
fidence that  was  the  prevailing  business  characteristic  of 
the  older  civilization.  According  to  the  treaties  which 
Japan  had  made  with  foreign  nations,  no  foreigner  was 
allowed  to  buy  land  outside  the  treaty  ports.  As,  how- 
ever, mission .  work  was  freely  allowed  by  the  govern- 
ment and  welcomed  by  many  of  the  people  in  all  parts 
of  the  land,  and  as  it  became  desirable  to  have  con- 
tinuous missionary  work  in  several  of  the  interior  towns, 
it  seemed  wise  to  locate  missionaries  in  those  places  and 
to  provide  suitable  houses  for  them.  In  order  to  do 
this,  land  was  bought  and  the  needed  houses  erected, 
and  the  title  was  necessarily  held  in  the  names  of  appar- 
ently trustworthy  native  Christians.  The  government 
was,  of  course,  fully  aware  of  what  was  being  done  and 
offered  no  objection.  It  was  well  understood  that  the 
property  was  not  for  the  private  ownership  of  the  indi- 
vidual missionary,  but  was  to  be  held  by  the  Christians 
for  the  use  of  the  mission  to  which  the  missionary  be- 
longed. For  many  years  no  questions  were  raised  and 
all  moved  along  smoothly.  The  arrangement  between 
the  missionaries  and  the  Christian  or  Christians  in  whose 
names  the  property  might  be  held  was  entirely  verbal, 
no  document  being  of  any  legal  value,  to  say  no'diing  of 
the  fact  that  in  those  early  days  the  mention  of  docu- 
mentary relationshi])s  would  have  greatly  luu-t  tlio  ten- 
der feelings  of  honor  which  were  so  prominent  a  [)art  of 


CHEERFULNESS— INDUSTRY  123 

samurai  character.  The  financial  relations  were  purely 
those  of  honor  and  trust. 

Under  this  general  method,  large  sums  of  money  were 
expended  by  the  American  Board  for  homes  for  its  mis- 
sionaries in  various  parts  of  Japan,  and  especially  in 
Kyoto.  Here  was  the  Doshisha,  which  grew  from  a 
small  English  school  and  Evangelists'  training  class  to 
a  prosperous  university  with  fine  buildings.  Tens  of 
thousands  of  dollars  were  put  into  this  institution,  be- 
sides the  funds  needful  for  the  land  and  the  houses  for 
nine  foreign  families.  An  endowment  was  also  raised, 
partly  in  Japan,  but  chiefly  in  America.  In  a  single  be- 
quest, Mr.  Harris  of  New  London  gave  over  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  for  a  School  of  Science.  It  has 
been  estimated  that,  altogether,  the  American  Board  and 
its  constituency  have  put  into  the  Doshisha,  including 
the  salaries  of  the  missionary  teachers,  toward  a  million 
dollars. 

In  the  early  nineties  the  political  skies  were  suddenly 
darkened.  The  question  of  treaty  revision  loomed  up 
black  in  the  heavens.  The  politicians  of  the  land 
clamored  for  the  absolute  refusal  of  all  right  of  prop- 
erty ownership  by  foreigners.  In  their  political  furore 
they  soon  began  to  attack  the  Japanese  Christians  who 
were  holding  the  property  used  by  the  various  missions. 
Tliey  accused  them  of  being  traitors  to  the  country.  A 
proposed  law  was  drafted  and  presented  in  the  National 
Diet,  confiscating  all  such  property.  The  Japanese 
holders  naturally  became  nervous  and  desirous  of 
severing  the  relationships  with  the  foreigners  as  soon  as 
possible.,  In  the  case  of  corporate  ownership  the  trus- 
tees began  to  make  assumptions  of  absolute  ownership, 
regardless  of  the  moral  claims  of  the  donors  of  the  funds. 
In  the  earlier  days  of  the  trouble  frequent  conferences 
on  the  question  were  held  by  the  missionaries  of  the 
American  Board  with  the  leading  Christians  of  the  Em- 
pire, and  their  constant  statement  was,  "  Do  not  worry; 
trust  us ,  we  are  samurai  and  will  do  nothing  that  is  not 
perfectly  honorable."  So  often  were  these  sentiments 
reiterated,  and  yet  so  steadily  did  the  whole  manage- 
ment of  the  Doshisha  move  further  and  further  away 


124       EVOLUTION    OF  THE   JAPANESE 

from  the  honorable  course,  that  finally  the  "  financial 
honor  of  the  samurai  "  came  to  have  an  odor  far  from 
pleasant.  A  deputation  of  four  gentlemen,  as  repre- 
sentatives of  the  American  Board,  came  from  America 
especially  to  confer  with  the  trustees  as  to  the  Christian 
principles  of  the  institution,  and  the  moral  claims  of  the 
Board,  but  wholly  in  vain.  The  administration  of  the 
Doshisha  became  so  distinctly  non-Christian,  to  use  no 
stronger  term,  that  the  mission  felt  it  impossible  to 
co-operate  longer  with  the  Doshisha  trustees;  the  mis- 
sionary members  of  the  faculty  accordingly  resigned. 
In  order  to  secure  exemption  from  the  draft  for  its 
students  the  trustees  of  the  Doshisha  abrogated  cer- 
tain clauses  of  the  constitution  relating  to  the  Christian 
character  of  the  institution,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  these 
clauses  belonged  to  the  "  unchangeable  "  part  of  the  con- 
stitution which  the  trustees,  on  taking  office,  had  indi- 
vidually sworn  to  maintain.  Again  the  Board  sent  out 
a  man,  now  a  lawyer  vested  with  full  power  to  press 
matters  to  a  final  issue.  After  months  of  negotiations 
with  the  trustees  in  regard  to  the  restoration  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  abrogated  clauses,  without  result,  he  was 
on  the  point  of  carrying  the  case  into  the  courts,  when 
the  trustees  decided  to  resign  in  a  body.  A  new  board 
of  trustees  has  been  formed,  who  bid  fair  to  carry  on  the 
institution  in  accord  with  the  wishes  of  its  founders  and 
benefactors,  as  expressed  in  the  original  constitution. 
At  one  stage  of  the  proceedings  the  trustees  voted  mag- 
nanimously, as  they  appeared  to  think,  to  allow^  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Board  to  live  for  fifteen  years,  rent  free, 
in  the  foreign  houses  connected  with  the  Doshisha;  this, 
because  of  the  many  favors  it  had  received  from  the 
Board!  By  this  vote  they  maintained  that  they  had 
more  than  fulfilled  every  requirement  of  honor.  That 
they  were  consciously  betraying  the  trust  that  had 
been  reposed  in  them  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  sup- 
posed. 

It  would  not  be  fair  not  to  add  that  this  experience  in 
Kyoto  does  not  exeni])lify  the  universal  Ja])ancse  char- 
acter. There  are  many  Japanese  who  dee]ily  de]ilore 
and    condemn    the    whole    proceeding.     Some    of    the 


CHEERFULNESS— INDUSTRY  125 

Doshisha  alumni  have  exerted  themselves  strenuously 
to  have  righteousness  done. 

Passing  now  from  the  character  of  trustful  confi- 
dence, we  take  up  its  opposite,  suspiciousness.  The  de- 
velopment of  this  quality  is  a  natural  result  of  a  military 
feudalism  such  as  ruled  Japan  for  hundreds  of  years. 
Intrigue  was  in  constant  use  when  actual  war  was  not 
being  waged.  In  an  age  when  conflicts  were  always 
hand  to  hand,  and  the  man  who  could  best  deceive  his 
enemy  as  to  his  next  blow  was  the  one  to  carry  ofif  his 
head,  the  development  of  suspicion,  strategy,  and  deceit 
was  inevitable.  The  most  suspicious  men,  other  things 
being  equal,  would  be  the  victors;  they,  with  their  fami- 
lies, would  survive  and  thus  determine  the  nature  of  the 
social  order.  The  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
clans  and  "  kuni,"  "  clan  territory,"  into  which  the  land 
was  divided,  kept  up  perpetual  training  in  the  arts  of 
intrigue  and  subtlety  which  are  inevitably  accompanied 
by  suspicion. 

Modern  manifestations  of  this  characteristic  are  fre- 
quent. Not  a  cabinet  is  formed,  but  the  question  of  its 
make-up  is  discussed  from  the  clannish  standpoint. 
Even  though  it  is  now  thirty  years  since  the  centralizing 
policy  was  entered  upon  and  clan  distinctions  were 
effectually  broken  down,  yet  clan  suspicion  and  jealousy 
is  not  dead. 

The  foreigner  is  impressed  by  the  constant  need  of  care 
in  conversation,  lest  he  be  thought  to  mean  something 
more  or  other  than  he^says.  When  we  have  occasion  to 
criticise  anything  in  the  Japanese,  we  have  found  by  ex- 
perience that  much  more  is  inferred  than  is  said. 
Shortly  after  my  arrival  in  Japan  I  was  advised  by  one 
who  had  been  in  the  land  many  years  to  be  careful  in 
correcting  a  domestic  or  any  other  person  sustaining 
any  relation  to  myself,  to  say  not  more  than  one-tenth 
of  what  I  meant,  for  the  other  nine-tenths  would  be 
inferred.  Direct  and  perfectly  frank  criticism  and  sug- 
gestion, such  as  prevail  among  Anglo-Americans  at 
least,  seem  to  be  rare  among  the  Japanese. 

In  closing,  it  is  in  order  to  note  once  again  that  the 
emotional  characteristics  considered  in  this  chapter,  al- 


126       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

though  customarily  thought  to  be  deep-seated  traits  of 
race  nature,  arc,  nevertheless,  shown  to  be  dependent  on 
the  character  of  the  social  order.  Change  the  order,  and 
in  due  season  corresponding  changes  occur  in  the 
national  character,  a  fact  which  would  be  impossible  were 
that  character  inherent  and  essential,  passed  on  from 
generation  to  generation  by  the  single  fact  of  biological 
heredity. 


XI 

JEALOUSY— REVENGE— HUMANE     FEELINGS 

A  CCORDING  to  the  teachings  of  Confucius,  jeal- 
I\  ousy  is  one  of  the  seven  just  grounds  on  which  a 
X^-L.  woman  may  be  divorced.  In  the  "  Greater  Learn- 
ing for  Women,"  *  occur  the  following  words :  "  Let  her 
never  even  dream  of  jealousy.  If  her  husband  be  disso- 
lute, she  must  expostulate  with  him,  but  never  either 
render  her  countenance  frightful  or  her  accents  re- 
pulsive, which  can  only  result  in  completely  alienating 
her  husband  from  her,  and  making  her  intolerable  in  his 
eyes."  "  The  five  worst  maladies  that  afflict  the  female 
mind  are  indocility,  discontent,  slander,  jealousy,  and 
silliness.  Without  any  doubt,  these  five  maladies  infest 
seven  or  eight  out  of' every  ten  women,  and  it  is  from 
these  that  arises  the  inferiority  of  women  to  men.  .  . 
Neither  when  she  blames  and  accuses  and  curses  inno- 
cent persons,  nor  when  in  her  jealousy  of  others  she 
thinks  to  set  herself  up  alone,  does  she  see  that  she  is 
her  own  enemy,  estranging  others  and  incurring  their 
hatred." 

The  humiliating  conditions  to  which  women  have  been 
subjected  in  the  past  and  present  social  order,  and  to 
which  full  reference  has  been  made  in  previous  chapters, 
give  sufficient  explanation  of  the  jealousy  which  is  recog- 
nized as  a  marked,  and,  as  might  appear,  inevitable  char- 
acteristic of  Japanese  women.  Especially  does  this  seem 
inevitable  when  it  is  remembered  how  slight  is  their  hold 
on  their  husbands,  on  whose  faithfulness  their  happiness 
so  largely  depends.  Only  as  this  order  changes  and 
the  wife  secures  a  more  certain  place  in  the  home,  free 
from  the  competition  of  concubines  and  harlots  and 
dancing  girls,  can  we  expect  the  characteristic  to  dis- 
*  Chapter  v.  p.  82. 
127 


128       EVOLUTION    OF    THE    JAPANESE 

appear.  That  it  will  do  so  under  such  conditions,  there 
is  no  reason  to  question.  Already  there  are  evidences 
that  in  homes  where  the  husband  and  the  wife  are  both 
earnest  Christians,  and  where  each  is  confident  of  the 
loyalty  of  the  other,  jealousy  is  as  rare  as  it  is  in  Chris- 
tian lands. 

But  is  jealousy  a  characteristic  limited  to  women?  or 
is  it  not  also  a  characteristic  of  men?  I  am  assured  from 
many  quarters  that  men  also  suffer  from  it.  The  jeal- 
ousy of  a  woman  is  aroused  by  the  fear  that  some  other 
woman  may  supplant  her  in  the  eyes  of  her  husband; 
that  of  a  man  by  the  fear  that  some  man  may  supplant 
him  in  rank  or  influence.  Marital  jealousy  of  men  seems 
to  be  rare.  Yet  I  heard  not  long  since  of  a  man  who 
was  so  afraid  lest  some  man  might  steal  his  wife's  affec- 
tions that  he  could  not  attend  to  his  business,  and 
finally,  after  three  months  of  married  wretchedness,  he 
divorced  her.  A  year  later  he  married  her  again,  but 
the  old  trouble  reappeared,  and  so  he  divorced  her  a 
second  time.  If  marital  jealousy  is  less  common  among 
men  than  among  women,  the  explanation  is  at  hand  in 
the  lax  moral  standard  for  man.  The  feudal  order  of 
society,  furthermore,  was  exactly  the  soil  in  which  to 
develop  masculine  jealousy.  In  such  a  society  ambi- 
tion and  jealousy  go  hand  in  hand.  Wherever  a  man's 
rise  in  popularity  and  influence  depends  on  the  over- 
throw of  someone  already  in  possession,  jealousy  is 
natural.  Connected  with  the  spirit  of  jealousy  is  that 
of  revenge.  Had  we  known  Japan  only  during  her 
feudal  days,  we  should  have  pronounced  the  Japanese 
exceedingly  revengeful.  Revenge  was  not  only  the  cus- 
tom, it  was  also  the  law  of  the  land  and  the  teaching 
of  moralists.  One  of  the  proverbs  handed  down  from 
the  hoary  past  is:  "  Kumpu  no  ada  to  tomo  ni  ten  wo 
itadakazu."  "  With  the  enemy  of  country,  or  father, 
one  cannot  live  under  the  same  heaven.'"  The  tales  of 
heroic  Japan  abound  in  stt)ries  of  revenge.  Once  when 
Confucius  was  asked  about  the  doctrine  of  Lao-Tse  that 
one  should  return  good  for  evil,  he  replied,  "  With  what 
then  should  one  reward  good  ?  The  true  doctine  is  to 
return  good  for  good,  and  evil  with  justice."     This  saying 


JEALOUS  Y— REVENGE  1 29 

of  Confucius  has  nullified  for  twenty-four  hundred  years 
that  pearl  of  truth  enunciated  by  Lao-Tse,  and  has  caused 
it  to  remain  an  undiscovered  diamond  amid  the  rubbish  of 
Taoism.  By  this  judgment  Confucius  sanctified  the 
rough  methods  of  justice  adopted  in  a  primitive  order 
of  society.  His  dictum  pecuharly  harmonized  with  the 
mihtarism  of  Japan.  Being,  then,  a  recognized  duty  for 
many  hundred  years,  it  would  be  strange  indeed  were  not 
revengefulness  to  appear  among  the  modern  traits  of  the 
Japanese. 

But  the  whole  order  of  society  has  been  transformed. 
Revenge  is  now  under  the  ban  of  the  state,  which  has 
made  itself  responsible  for  the  infliction  of  corporal 
punishment  on  individual  transgressors.  As  a  result 
conspicuous  manifestations  of  the  revengeful  spirit  have 
disappeared,  and,  may  we  not  rightly  say,  even  the  spirit 
itself?  The  new  order  of  society  leaves  no  room  for  its 
ordinary  activity;  it  furnishes  legal  methods  of  redress. 
The  rapid  change  in  regard  to  this  characteristic  gives 
reason  for  thinking  that  if  the  industrial  and  social  order 
could  be  suitably  adjusted,  and  the  conditions  of  indi- 
vidual thought  and  life  regulated,  this,  and  many  other 
evil  traits  of  human  character,  might  become  radically 
changed  in  a  short  time.  Intelligent  Christian  Social- 
ism is  based  on  this  theory  and  seems  to  have  no  little 
support  for  its  position. 

Are  Japanese  cruel  or  humane?  The  general  impres- 
sion of  the  casual  tourist  doubtless  is  that  they  are  hu- 
mane. They  are  kind  to  children  on  the  streets,  to  a 
marked  degree;  the  jinrikisha  runners  turn  out  not  only 
for  men,  women,  and  children,  but  even  for  dogs.  The 
patience,  too,  of  the  ordinary  Japanese  under  trying 
circumstances  is  marked;  they  show  amazing  tolerance 
for  one  another's  failings  and  defects,  and  their  mutual 
helpfulness  in  seasons  of  distress  is  often  striking.  To 
one  traveling  through  New  Japan  there  is  usually  little 
that  will  strike  the  eye  as  cruel. 

But  the  longer  one  lives  in  the  country,  the  more  is 
he  impressed  with  certain  aspects  of  life  which  seem  to 
evince  an  essentially  unsympathetic  and  inhumane  dis- 
position.    I  well  remember  the  shock  I  received  when 


130       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

I  discovered,  not  far  from  my  home  in  Kumamoto,  an  in- 
sane man  kept  in  a  cage.  He  was  given  only  a  slight 
amount  of  clothing,  even  though  heavy  frost  fell  each 
night.  Food  was  given  him  once  or  twice  a  day.  He 
was  treated  like  a  wild  animal,  not  even  being  provided 
with  bedding.  This  is  not  an  exceptional  instance,  as 
might,  perhaps,  at  first  be  supposed.  The  editor  of  the 
Japan  Mail,  who  has  lived  in  Japan  many  years,  and 
knows  the  people  well,  says:  "Every  foreigner  travel- 
ing or  residing  in  Japan  must  have  been  shocked  from 
time  to  time  by  the  method  of  treating  lunatics.  Only 
a  few  months  ago  an  imbecile  might  have  been  seen  at 
Hakone  confined  in  what  was  virtually  a  cage,  where, 
from  year's  end  to  year's  end,  he  received  neither  medi- 
cal assistance  nor  loving  tendance,  but  was  simply  fed 
like  a  wild  beast  in  a  managerie.  We  have  witnessed 
many  such  sights  with  horror  and  pity.  Yet  humane 
Japanese  do  not  seem  to  think  of  establishing  asylums 
where  these  unhappy  sufferers  can  find  refuge.  There 
is  only  one  lunatic  asylum  in  Tokyo.  It  is  con- 
trolled by  the  municipality,  its  accommodation  is  limited, 
and  its  terms  place  it  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor." 
And  the  amazing  part  is  that  such  sights  do  not  seem 
to  arouse  the  sentiment  of  pity  in  the  Japanese. 

The  treatment  accorded  to  lepers  is  another  signifi- 
cant indication  of  the  lack  of  sympathetic  and  humane 
sentiments  among  the  people  at  large.  For  ages  they 
have  been  turned  from  home  and  house  and  compelled 
to  wander  outcasts,  living  in  the  outskirt  of  the  villages 
in  rude  booths  of  their  own  construction,  and  dependent 
on  their  daily  begging,  until  a  wretched  death  gives  them 
relief  from  a  more  wretched  life.  So  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  learn,  the  opening  of  hospitals  for  lepers  did  not 
take  place  until  begun  by  Christians  in  recent  times. 
This  casting  out  of  leper  kindred  was  not  done  by  the 
poor  alone,  but  by  the  wealthy  also,  although  I  do  not 
afifirm  or  suppose  that  the  practice  was  universal.  I  am 
personally  acquainted  with  the  management  of  the 
Christian  Leper  Hospital  in  Kumamoto,  and  the  sad 
accounts  I  have  heard  of  the  way  in  which  lepers  are 
treated  by  their  kindred   would   seem   incrcilible,  were 


JEALOUSY— REVENGE  1 3 1 

they  not  supported  by  the  character  of  my  informants, 
and  by  many  other  facts  of  a  kindred  nature. 

A  history  of  Japan  was  prepared  by  Japanese  scholars 
under  appointment  from  the  government  and  sent  to 
the  Columbian  Exposition  in  1893;  it  makes  the  follow- 
ing statement,  already  referred  to  on  a  previous  page: 
"  Despite  the  issue  of  several  proclamations  .  .  .  peo- 
ple were  governed  by  such  strong  aversion  to  the  sight 
of  sickness  that  travelers  were  often  left  to  die  by  the 
roadside  from  thirst,  hunger,  or  disease,  and  household- 
ers even  went  to  the  length  of  thrusting  out  of  doors 
and  abandoning  to  utter  destitution  servants  who  suf- 
fered from  chronic  maladies.  .  .  Whenever  an  epi- 
demic occurred,  the  number  of  deaths  that  resulted  was 
enormous."  *  This  was  the  condition  of  things  after 
Buddhism,  with  its  civilizing  and  humanizing  influences, 
had  been  at  work  in  the  land  for  about  four  hundred 
years,  and  Old  Japan  was  at  the  height  of  her  glory, 
whether  considered  from  the  standpoint  of  her  govern- 
ment, her  literature,  her  religious  development,  or  her 
art. 

Of  a  period  some  two  hundred  years  earlier,  it  is  stated 
that,  by  the  assistance  of  the  Sovereign,  Buddhism  es- 
tablished a  charity  hospital  in  Nara,  "  where  the  poor 
received  medical  treatment  and  drugs  gratis,  and  an 
asylum  was  founded  for  the  support  of  the  destitute. 
Measures  were  also  taken  to  rescue  foundlings,  and,  in 
general,  to  relieve  poverty  and  distress"  (p.  92).  The 
good  beginning  made  at  that  time  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  followed  up.  As  nearly  as  I  can  make  out, 
relying  on  the  investigations  of  Rev.  J.  H.  Pettee  and 
Mr.  Ishii,  there  are  to-day  in  Japan  fifty  orphan  asy- 
lums, of  which  eleven  are  of  non-Christian,  and  thirty- 
nine  of  Christian  origin,  support,  and  control.  Of  the 
non-Christian,  five  are  in  Osaka,  two  in  Tokyo,  four  in 
Kyoto,  and  one  each  in  Nagoya,  Kumamoto,  and  Mat- 
suye.  Presumably  the  majority  of  these  are  in  the 
hands  of  Buddhists.  Of  the  Christian  asylums  twenty 
are  Roman  Catholic  and  nineteen  are  Protestant.  It  is 
a  noteworthy  fact  that  in  this  form  of  philanthropy  and 
*  P.  133. 


132        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

religious  activity,  as  in  so  many  others,  Christians  are 
the  pioneers  and  Buddhists  are  the  imitators.  In  a  land 
where  Buddhism  has  been  so  effective  as  to  modify  the 
diet  of  the  nation,  leading  them  in  obedience  to  the  doc- 
trines of  Buddha,  as  has  been  stated,  to  give  up  eating 
animal  food,  it  is  exceedingly  strange  that  the  people  ap- 
parently have  no  regard  for  the  pain  of  living  animals. 
Says  the  editor  of  the  Mail  in  the  article  already  quoted: 
"  They  will  not  interfere  to  save  a  horse  from  the  bru- 
tality of  its  driver,  and  they  will  sit  calmly  in  a  jinrikisha 
while  its  drawer,  with  throbbing  heart  and  str<iining  mus- 
cles, toils  up  a  steep  hill."  How  often  have  I  seen  this 
sight !  How  the  rider  can  endure  it,  I  cannot  under- 
stand, except  it  be  that  revolt  at  cruelty  and  sympathy 
with  suffering  do  not  stir  within  his  heart.  Of  course, 
heartless  individuals  are  not  rare  in  the  West  also.  I 
am  speaking  here,  however,  not  of  single  individuals, 
but  of  general  characteristics. 

But  a  still  more  conspicuous  evidence  of  Japanese 
deficiency  of  sympathy  is  the  use,  until  recently,  of  pub- 
lic torture.  It  was  the  theory  of  Jaj^anese  jurisprudence 
that  no  man  should  be  punished,. ,e\4«n  though  proved 
guilty  by  sufficient  evidence,  until  he  himself  confessed 
his  guilt;  consequently,  on  the  flimsiest  evidence,  antl 
even  on  bare  suspicion,  he  was  tortured  until  the  de- 
sired confession  was  extracted.  The  cruelty  of  the 
methods  employed,  we  of  the  nineteenth  century  cannot 
appreciate.  Some  foreigner  tells  how  the  sight  of  tor- 
ture which  he  witnessed  caused  him  to  weep,  while  the 
Japanese  spectators  stood  by  unmoved.  The  methods 
of  execution  were  also  refined  devices  of  torture.  Town- 
send  Harris  says  that  crucifixion  was  performed  as  fol- 
lows: "The  criminal  is  tied  to  a  cross  with  his  arms 
and  legs  stretched  apart  as  wide  as  possible;  then  a 
spear  is  thrust  through  the  body,  entering  just  under  t'lic 
bottom  of  the  shoulder  blade  on  the  left  si(,le,  and  com- 
ing out  on  the  rigliT  side,  just  by  the  armpit.  Anotlu-r 
is  then  thrust  through  in  a  similar  manner  from  the 
right  to  the  left  side.  The  executioner  endeavors  to 
avoid  the  heart  in  this  operation.  The  spears  are 
thrust  through   in   this   maniier   until   the   criminal   ex- 


JEALOUSY— REVENGE  133 

pires,  but  his  sufferings  are  prolonged  as  much  as  possi- 
ble. Shinano  told  me  that  a  few  years  ago  a  very  strong 
man  lived  until  the  eleventh  spear  had  been  thrust 
through  him." 

From  these  considerations,  which  might  be  supported 
by  a  multitude  of  illustrations,  we  conclude  that  in  the 
past  there  has  certainly  been  a  great  amount  of  cruelty 
exhibited  in  Japan,  and  that  even  to  this  day  there  is  in 
this  country  far  less  sympathy  for  suffering,  whether 
animal  or  human,  than  is  felt  in  the  West. 

But  we  must  not  be  too  quick  to  jump  to  the  con- 
clusion that  in  this  regard  we  have  discovered  an  essen- 
tial characteristic  of  the  Japanese  nature.  With  refer- 
ence to  the  reported  savagery  displayed  by  Japanese 
troops  at  Port  Arthur,  it  has  been  said  and  repeated 
that  you  have  only  to  scratch  the  Japanese  skin  to  find 
the  Tartar,  as  if  the  recent  development  of  human  feel- 
ings were  superficial,  and  his  real  character  were  ex- 
hibited in  his  most  cruel  moments.  To  get  a  true  view 
of  the  case  let  us  look  for  a  few  moments  at  some  other 
parts  of  the  world,  and  ask  ourselves  a  few  questions. 

How  long  is  it  since  the  Inquisition  was  enforced  in 
Europe?  Who  can  read  of  the  tortures  there  inflicted 
without  shuddering  with  horror?  It  is  not  necessary 
to  go  back  to  the  times  of  the  Romans  with  their  amphi- 
theaters and  gladiators,  and  with  their  throwing  of 
Christians  to  wild  animals,  or  to  Nero  using  Christians 
as  torches  in  his  garden.  How  long  is  it  since  witches 
were  burned,  not  only  in  Europe  by  the  thousand,  but 
in  enlightened  and  Christian  New  England?  although 
it  is  true  that  the  numbers  there  burned  were  relatively 
few  and  the  reign  of  terror  brief.  How  long  is  it  since 
slaves  were  feeling  the  lash  throughout  the  Southern 
States  of  our  "  land  of  freedom  "?  How  long  is  it  since 
fiendish  mobs  have  burned  or  lynched  the  objects  of  their 
rage?  How  long  is  it  since  societies  for  preventing 
cruelty  to  animals  and  to  children  were  established  in 
England  and  America?  Is  it  not  a  suggestive  fact  that 
it  was  needful  to  establish  them  and  that  it  is  still  need- 
ful to  maintain  them?  The  fact  is  that  the  highly  de- 
veloped humane  sense  which  is  now  felt  so  strongly  by 


134       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  great  majority  of  people  in  the  West  is  a  late  de- 
veloi)mcnt,  and  is  not  yet  universal.  It  is  not  for  us  to 
boast,  or  even  to  feel  superior  to  the  Japanese,  whose 
opportunities  for  developing  this  sentiment  have  been 
limited. 

Furthermore,  in  regard  to  Japan,  we  must  not  over- 
look certain  facts  which  show  that  Japan  has  made  grad- 
ual progress  in  the  development  of  the  humane  feelings 
and  in  the  legal  suppression  of  cruelty.  Tlie  Nihon 
Shoki  records  that,  on  the  death  of  Yamato  Hiko  no 
IMikoto,  his  immediate  retainers  were  buried  alive  in  a 
standing  position  around  the  grave,  presumably  with 
the  heads  alone  projecting  above  the  surface  of  the 
ground.  The  Emperor  Suijin  Tenno,  on  hearing 
the  continuous  wailing  day  after  day  of  the  slowly 
dying  retainers,  was  touched  with  pity  and  said  that 
it  was  a  dreadful  custom  to  bury  with  the  master 
those  who  had  been  most  faithful  to  him  w^hen  alive. 
And  he  added  that  an  evil  custom,  even  though 
ancient,  should  not  be  followed,  and  ordered  it  to 
be  abandoned.  A  later  record  informs  us  that  from 
this  time  arose  the  custom  of  burying  images  in  the 
place  of  servants.  According  to  the  ordinary  Jap- 
anese chronology,  this  took  place  in  the  year  correspond- 
ing to  I  B.C.  The  laws  of  leyasu  (1610  a.  d.)  like- 
wise condemn  this  custom  as  unreasonable,  together 
with  the  custom  in  accordance  with  which  the  retainers 
committed  suicide  upon  the  master's  death.  These  same 
laws  also  refer  to  the  proverb  on  revenge,  given  in  the 
third  paragraph  of  this  chapter,  and  add  that  whoever 
undertakes  thus  to  avenge  himself  or  his  father  or 
mother  or  lord  or  cider  brother  must  first  give  notice  to 
the  proper  office  of  the  fact  and  of  the  time  within  which 
he  will  carry  out  his  intention;  without  such  a  notice, 
the  avenger  will  be  considered  a  common  murderer. 
This  provision  was  clearly  a  limitation  of  the  law  of  re- 
venge. These  laws  of  leyasu  also  describe  the  old 
methods  of  punishing  criminals,  and  then  add:  "  Crimi- 
nals are  to  be  punished  by  branding,  or  beating,  or  tying 
up,  and,  in  cajjital  cases,  by  spearing  or  decaiiitation ; 
but  the  old  punishments  of  tearing  to  pieces  and  boiling 


JEALOUSY— REVENGE  135 

to  death  are  not  to  be  used."  Torture  was  finally 
legally  abolished  m  Japan  only  as  late  as  1877. 

It  has  already  become  quite  clear  that  the  prevalence 
of  cruelty  or  of  humanity  depends  largely  upon  the  so- 
cial order  that  prevails.  It  is  not  at  all  strange  that 
cruelty,  or,  at  least,  lack  of  sympathy  for  suffering  in 
man  or  beast,  should  be  characteristic  of  an  order  based 
on  constant  hand-to-hand  conflict.  Still  more  may  we 
expect  to  find  a  great  indifference  to  human  suffering 
wherever  the  value  of  man  as  man  is  slighted.  Not 
until  the  idea  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  has  taken  full 
possession  of  one's  heart  and  thought  does  true  sym- 
pathy spring  up;  then,  for  the  first  time,  comes  the  power 
of  putting  one's  self  in  a  brother's  place.  The  apparently 
cruel  customs  of  primitive  times,  in  their  treatment  of 
the  sick,  and  particularly  of  those  suffering  from  con- 
tagious diseases,  is  the  natural,  not  to  say  necessary,  re- 
sult of  superstitious  ignorance.  Furthermore,  it  was 
often  the  only  ready  means  to  prevent  the  spread  of  con- 
tagious or  epidemic  diseases. 

In  the  treatment  of  the  sick,  the  first  prerequisite  for 
the  development  of  tenderness  is  the  introduction  of 
correct  ideas  as  to  the  nature  of  disease  and  its  proper 
treatment.  As  soon  as  this  has  been  effectually  done, 
a  great  proportion  of  the  apparent  indifference  to  human 
suffering  passes  away.  The  cruelty  which  is  to-day  so 
universal  in  Africa  needs  but  a  changed  social  and  in- 
dustrial order  to  disappear.  The  needed  change  has 
come  to  Japan.  Physicians  trained  in  modern  methods 
of  medical  practice  are  found  all  over  the  land.  In  1894 
there  were  597  hospitals,  42,551  physicians,  33,921 
nurses  and  midwives,  2869  pharmacists,  and  16,106  drug- 
gists, besides  excellent  schools  of  pharmacy  and  medi- 
cine. * 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  nearly  all  forms  of  active  cruelty 
have  disappeared  from  Japan;  some  amount  of  active 
sympathy  has  been  developed,  though,  as  compared  to 
that  of  other  civilized  lands,  it  is  still  small.  But  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  rapid  change  which  has  come 

*  "  Resume  Statistique  I'Empire  du  Japan,"  published  by  the 
Imperial  Cabinet,  1897. 


136       EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

over  the  people  during  the  past  thirty  years  is  not  a 
change  in  essential  innate  character,  but  only  in  the 
social  order.  As  soon  as  the  idea  takes  root  that  every 
man  has  a  mission  of  mercy,  and  that  the  more  cruel  are 
not  at  liberty  to  vent  their  barbarous  feelings  on  helpless 
creatures,  whether  man  or  beast,  a  strong  uprising  of 
humane  activity  will  take  place  which  will  demand  the 
formation  of  societies  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  and 
for  carrying  active  relief  to  the  distressed  and  wretched. 
Lepers  will  no  longer  need  to  eke  out  a  precarious  liv- 
ing by  exhibiting  their  revolting  misery  in  public;  luna- 
tics will  no  longer  be  kept  in  filthy  cages  and  left  with 
insufificient  care  or  clothing.  The  stream  of  philan- 
thropy will  rise  high,  to  be  at  once  a  blessing  and  a  glory 
to  a  race  that  already  has  shown  itself  in  many  w-ays 
capable  of  the  highest  ideals  of  the  West. 


XII 

AMBITION— CONCEIT 

A  MBITION  is  a  conspicuous  characteristic  of  New 
UL  Japan.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  common  de- 
J.  JL  sire  of  her  young  men  to  become  statesmen.  The 
stories  of  Neesima  and  other  young  Japanese  who,  in 
spite  of  opposition  and  without  money,  worked  their 
way  to  eminence  and  usefulness,  have  fired  the  imagi- 
nation of  thousands  of  youths.  They  think  that  all  they 
need  is  to  get  to  America,  when  their  difficulties  will 
be  at  an  end.  They  fancy  that  they  have  but  to  look 
around  to  find  some  man  who  will  support  them  while 
they  study. 

Not  only  individuals,  but  the  people  as  a  whole,  have 
great  ambitions.  Three  hundred  years  ago  the  Taiko, 
Hideyoshi,  the  Napoleon  of  Japan,  and  the  virtual  ruler 
of  the  Empire,  planned,  after  subjugating  Korea,  to  con- 
quer China  and  make  himself  the  Emperor  of  the  East. 
He  thought  he  could  accomplish  this  in  two  years.  Dur- 
ing the  recent  war,  it  was  the  desire  of  many  to  march 
on  to  Pekin.  Frequent  expression  was  given  to  the 
idea  that  it  is  the  duty  of  Japan  to  rouse  China  from 
her  long  sleep,  as  America  roused  Japan  in  1854.  It  is 
frequently  argued,  in  editorial  articles  and  public 
speeches,  that  the  Japanese  are  peculiarly  fitted  to  lead 
China  along  the  path  of  progress,  not  only  indirectly  by 
example,  as  they  have  been  doing,  but  directly  by 
teaching,  as  foreigners  have  led  Japan.  "  The  Mission 
of  Japan  to  the  Orient  "  is  a  frequent  theme  of  public 
discourse.  But  national  ambitions  do  not  rest  here.  It 
is  not  seldom  asserted  that  in  Japan  a  mingling  of  the 
Occidental  and  Oriental  civilizations  is  taking  place  un- 
der such  favorable  conditions  that,  for  the  first  time  in 
history,  the  better  elements  of  both  are  being  selected; 

137 


138        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

and  that  before  lont^  the  world  will  sit  to  learn  at  her 
feet.  The  lofty  ambition  of  a  group  of  radical  Chris- 
tians is  to  discover  or  create  a  new  religion  which  shall 
unite  the  best  features  of  Oriental  and  Occidental  re- 
ligious thought  and  experience.  The  religion  of  the 
future  will  be,  not  Christianity,  nor  Buddhism,  but  some- 
thing better  than  either,  more  consistent,  more  pro- 
found, more  universal;  and  this  religion,  first  developed 
in  Japan,  will  spread  to  other  lands  and  become  the  final 
religion  of  the  world. 

A  single  curious  illustration  of  thehigh-fiyingthoughts 
of  the  people  may  well  find  mention  here.  W'hen  the 
Kumamoto  Boys'  School  divided  over  the  arbitrary, 
tyrannical  methods  of  their  newly  secured,  brilliant  prin- 
cipal, already  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  the 
majority  of  the  trustees  withdrew  and  at  once  estab- 
lished a  new  school  for  boys.  For  some  time  they 
struggled  for  a  name  which  should  set  forth  the  prin- 
ciples for  which  the  school  stood,  and  finally  they  fixed 
on  that  of  "  To-A  Gakko."  Translated  into  unpreten- 
tious English,  this  means  "Eastern  Asia  School";  the 
idea  was  that  the  school  stood  for  no  narrow  methods 
of  education,  and  that  its  influence  was  to  extend  be- 
yond the  confines  of  Japan.  This  interpretation  is  not 
an  inference,  but  was  publicly  stated  on  various  occa- 
sions. The  school  began  with  twenty-five  boys,  if  my 
memory  is  correct,  and  never  reached  as  many  as  fift}-. 
In  less  than  three  years  it  died  an  untimely  death  through 
lack  of  patronage. 

The  young  men  of  the  island  of  Kyushu,  especially 
of  Kumamoto  and  Kagoshima  provinces,  are  noted  for 
their  ambitious  projects.  The  once  famous  "  Kuma- 
moto Band  "  consisted  entirely  of  Kyushu  boys.  Under 
the  masterful  influence  of  Captain  Jaynes  those  high- 
spirited  sons  of  samurai,  who  had  come  to  learn  foreign 
languages  and  science,  in  a  school  founded  to  combat 
Christianity  and  to  ui)build  Buddhism,  became  impressed 
with  the  immense  superiority  of  foreign  lantls,  which 
superiority  they  were  leil  to  attribute  to  Christianity. 
They  accordingly  espoused  the  Christian  cause  with 
great  ardor,   and,   in  their  compact   with   one   another, 


AMBITION— CONCEIT  139 

agreed  to  work  for  the  reform  of  Japan.  I  have  hstened 
to  many  addresses  by  the  Kumamoto  schoolboys,  and  I 
have  been  uniformly  impressed  with  the  political  and 
national  tendencies  of  their  thought. 

Accompanying  ambition  is  a  group  of  less  admirable 
qualities,  such  as  self-sufficiency  and  self-conceit.  They 
are  seldom  manifested  with  that  coarseness  which  in 
the  West  we  associate  with  them,  for  the  Japanese  is 
usually  too  polished  to  be  ofifensively  obtrusive.  He 
seldom  indulges  in  bluster  or  direct  assertion,  but  is  con- 
tented rather  with  the  silent  assumption  of  superiority. 
I  heard  recently  of  a  slight,  though  capital,  illustration 
of  my  point.  Two  foreign  gentlemen  were  walking 
through  the  town  of  Tadotsu  some  years  since  and  ob- 
served a  sign  in  English  which  read  "  Stemboots." 
Wondering  what  the  sign  could  mean  they  inquired  the 
business  of  the  place,  and  learning  that  it  was  a  steam- 
boat office,  they  gave  the  clerk  the  reason  for  their  in- 
quiry, and  at  his  request  made  the  necessary  correction. 
A  few  days  later,  however,  on  their  return,  they  noticed 
that  the  sign  had  been  re-corrected  to  "  Stem-boats,"  an 
assumption  of  superior  knowledge  on  the  part  of  some 
tyro  in  English.  The  multitude  of  signboards  in  aston- 
ishing English,  in  places  frequented  by  English-speaking 
people,  is  one  of  the  amusing  features  of  Japan.  It 
would  seem  as  if  the  shopkeepers  would  at  least  take  the 
pains  to  have  the  signs  correctly  worded  and  spelled,  by 
asking  the  help  of  some  foreigner  or  competent  Japa- 
nese. Yet  they  assume  that  they  know  all  that  is 
needful. 

Indications  of  perfect  self-confidence  crop  out  in  mul- 
titudes of  ways  far  too  numerous  to  mention.  The 
aspiring  ambition  spoken  of  in  the  immediately  preced- 
ing pages  is  one  indication  of  this  characteristic.  An- 
other is  the  readiness  of  fledglings  to  undertake  re- 
sponsibilities far  beyond  them.  Young  men  having  a 
smattering  of  English,  yet  wholly  unable  to  converse, 
set  up  as  teachers.  Youths  in  school  not  infrequently 
undertake  to  instruct  their  teachers  as  to  what  courses 
of  study  and  what  treatment  they  should  receive.  Still 
more  conspicuous  is  the  cool  assumption  of  superiority 


140       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

evinced  by  so  many  Japanese  in  discussing  intellectual 
and  philosophical  problems.  The  manner  assumed  is 
that  of  one  who  is  complete  master  of  the  subject.  The 
silent  contempt  often  poured  on  foreigners  who  attempt 
to  discuss  these  problems  is  at  once  amusing  and  illus- 
trative of  the  characteristic  of  which  1  am  speaking.* 

We  turn  next  to  inquire  for  the  explanation  of  these 
characteristics.  Are  they  inherent  traits  of  the  race? 
Or  are  they  the  product  of  the  times?  Doubtless  the 
latter  is  the  true  explanation.  It  will  be  found  that 
those  individuals  in  w^hom  these  characteristics  appear 
are  descendants  of  the  samurai.  A  small  class  of  men 
freed  from  heavy  physical  toil,  given  to  literature  and 
culture,  ever  depending  on  the  assumption  of  superiority 
for  the  maintenance  of  their  place  in  society  and  defend- 
ing their  assumption  by  the  sword — such  a  class,  in  such 
a  social  order,  would  develop  the  characteristics  in  ques- 
tion to  a  high  degree.  Should  we  expect  an  immediate 
change  of  character  when  the  social  order  has  been  sud- 
denly changed? 

In  marked  contrast  to  the  lofty  assumptions  of  superi- 
ority which  characterized  the  samurai  of  Old  Japan,  was 
the  equally  marked  assumption  of  inferiority  which  char- 
acterized the  rest  of  the  people,  or  nineteen-twentieths 
of  the  nation.  I  have  already  sufBciently  dwelt  on  this 
aspect  of  national  character,  i  here  recur  to  it  merely 
to  enforce  the  truth  that  self-arrogation  and  self- 
abnegation,  haughtiness  and  humility,  proud,  high- 
handed, magisterial  manners,  and  cringing,  obsccjuious 
obedience,  are  all  elements  of  character  that  depend  on 
the  nature  of  the  social  order.  They  are  passed  on  from 
generation  to  generation  more  by  social  than  by  bio- 
logical heredity.  Both  of  these  sets  of  contrasted  char- 
acteristics are  induced  by  a  full-fledged  feudal  system, 
and  must  remain  for  a  time  as  a  social  inheritance  after 
that  system  has  been  overthrown,  particularly  if  its  over- 
throw is  sudden.  In  ])roportion  as  the  principles  of 
personal  rights  and   individual  worth  on  the  basis  of 

♦As  illustrating  tlie  point  under  discussion  see  portions 
of  addresses  reported  in  "  The  World's  Parliament  of  Religions," 
vol.  ii.  pp.  1014,  1283. 


AMBITION— CONCEIT  141 

manhood  become  realized  by  the  people  and  incorpo- 
rated into  the  government  and  customs  of  the  land,  will 
abnegating  obsequiousness,  as  well  as  haughty  lordli- 
ness, be  replaced  by  a  straightforward  manliness,  in 
which  men  of  whatever  grade  of  society  will  frankly  face 
each  other,  eye  to  eye. 

But  what  shall  we  say  in  regard  to  the  assumption 
made  by  young  Japan  in  its  attitude  to  foreigners?  Are 
the  assumptions  wholly  groundless?  Is  the  self-confi- 
dence unjustified?  Far  from  it.  When  we  study  later 
the  intellectual  elements  of  Japanese  character,  we  shall 
see  some  reasons  for  their  feeling  of  self-reliance.  The 
progress  which  the  nation  has  made  in  many  lines  within 
thirty  years  shows  that  it  has  certain  kinds  of  power 
and,  consequently,  some  ground  for  self-reliance.  Fur- 
thermore, self-reliance,  if  fairly  supported  by  ability  and 
zeal,  is  essential  in  the  attainment  of  any  end  whatever. 
Faint  heart  never  won  fair  lady.  Confidence  in  self  is 
one  form  of  faith.  No  less  of  peoples  than  individuals 
is  it  true,  that  without  faith  in  themselves  they  cannot 
attain  their  goal.  The  impression  of  undue  self-con- 
fidence made  by  the  Japanese  may  be  owing  partly  to 
their  shortness  of  stature.  It  is  a  new  experience  for 
the  West  to  see  a  race  of  little  people  with  large  brains 
and  large  plans.  Especially  does  it  seem  strange  and 
conceited  for  a  people  whose  own  civilization  is  so  be- 
lated to  assume  a  role  of  such  importance  in  the  afifairs 
of' the  world.  Yet  we  must  learn  to  dissociate  physical 
size  from  mental  or  spiritual  capacity.  The  future  alone 
will  disclose  what  Japanese  self-reliance  and  energy  can 
produce. 

The  present  prominence  of  this  characteristic  in  Japan 
is  still  further  to  be  accounted  for  by  her  actual  recent 
history.  The  overthrow  of  the  Shogunate  was  pri- 
marily the  work  of  young  men;  the  introduction  of  al- 
most all  the  sweeping  reforms  which  have  transformed 
Japan  has  been  the  work  of  young  men  who,  though 
but  partly  equipped  for  their  work,  approached  it  with 
energy  and  perfect  confidence,  not  knowing  enough  per- 
haps to  realize  the  difficulties  they  were  undertaking. 
They  had  to  set  aside  the  customs  of  centuries;  to  do 


142       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

this  required  startling  assumptions  of  superiority  to  their 
ancestors  and  their  imme(Hate  parents.  The  young  men 
undertook  to  dispute  and  doubt  everything  that  stood 
in  the  way  of  national  re-organization.  In  what  nation 
has  there  ever  been  such  a  setting  aside  of  parental  teach- 
ing and  ancestral  authority?  Tliese  heroic  measures 
secured  results  in  which  the  nation  glories.  Is  it 
strange,  then,  that  the  same  spirit  should  show  itself  in 
every  branch  of  life,  even  in  the  attitude  of  the  people  to 
the  Westerners  who  have  brought  them  the  new  ways 
and  ideas? 

The  Japanese,  however,  is  not  the  only  conceited 
nation.  Indeed,  it  would  be  near  the  truth  to  say  that 
there  is  no  people  without  this  quality.  Certainly  the 
American  and  English,  French  and  German  nations'  can- 
not presume  to  criticise  others.  The  reason  why  we 
think  Japan  unique  in  this  respect  is  that  in  the  case  of 
these  Western  nations  we  know  more  of  the  grounds  for 
national  self-satisfaction  than  in  the  case  of  Japan.  Yet 
Western  lands  are,  in  many  respects,  truly  provincial  to 
this  very  day,  in  spite  of  their  advantages  and  progress ; 
the  difficulty  with  most  of  them  is  that  they  do  not  per- 
ceive it.  The  lack  of  culture  that  prevails  among  our 
working  classes  is  in  some  respects  great.  The  narrow 
horizon  still  bounding  the  vision  of  the  average  Ameri- 
can or  Briton  is  very  conspicuous  to  one  who  has  had 
opportunities  to  live  and  travel  in  many  lands.  Each 
country,  and  even  each  section  of  a  country,  is  much  in- 
clined to  think  that  it  has  more  nearly  reached  perfec- 
tion than  any  other. 

This  phase  of  national  and  local  feeling  is  interesting, 
especially  after  one  has  lived  in  Japan  a  number  of  years 
and  has  had  opportunities  to  mingle  freely  with  her 
people.  For  they,  although  self-reliant  and  self-con- 
ceited, are  at  the  same  time  surprisingly  ready  to  ac- 
knowledge that  they  are  far  behind  the  times.  Their 
open-mindedness  is  truly  amazing.  In  describing  the 
methods  of  land  tenure,  of  house-building,  of  farming, 
of  local  government,  of  education,  of  moral  instruction, 
of  family  life,  indeed,  of  almost  anything  in  the  West 
that  has  some  advantageous  feature,  the  remark  will  be 


AMBITION— CONCEIT  143 

dropped  incidentally  that  these  facts  show  how  uncivi- 
lized Japan  still  is.  In  their  own  public  addresses,  if  any 
custom  is  attacked,  the  severest  indictment  that  can  be 
brought  against  it  is  that  it  is  uncivilized.  In  spite, 
therefore,  of  her  self-conceit,  Japan  is  in  a  fairer  way  of 
making  progress  than  many  a  Western  nation,  because 
she  is  also  so  conscious  of  defects.  A  large  section  of 
the  nation  has  a  passion  for  progress.  It  wishes  to  learn 
of  the  good  that  foreign  lands  have  attained,  and  to  apply 
the  knowledge  in  such  wise  as  shall  fit  most  advantage- 
ously into  the  national  life.  Although  Japan  is  con- 
ceited, her  conceit  is  not  without  reason,  nor  is  it  to  be 
attributed  to  her  inherent  race  nature.  It  is  manifestly 
due  to  her  history  and  social  order  past  and  present. 


XIII 
PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS— COURAGE 

NO  word  is  so  dear  to  the  patriotic  Japanese  as  the 
one  that  leaps  to  his  Hps  when  his  country  is 
assailed  or  maligned,  "  Yamato-Damashii."  In 
prosaic  English  this  means  "  Japan  Soul."  But  the 
native  word  has  a  flavor  and  a  host  of  associations  that 
render  it  the  most  pleasing  his  tongue  can  utter. 
"  Yamato  "  is  the  classic  name  for  that  part  of  Japan 
where  the  divinely  honored  Emperor,  Jimmu  Tenno,  the 
founder  of  the  dynasty  and  the  Empire,  first  established 
his  court  and  throne.  "  Damashii  "  refers  to  the  soul, 
and  especially  to  the  noble  qualities  of  the  soul,  which, 
in  Japan  of  yore,  were  synonymous  with  bravery,  the 
characteristic  of  the  samurai.  If,  therefore,  you  wish  to 
stir  in  the  native  breast  the  deepest  feelings  of  patriotism 
and  courage,  you  need  but  to  call  upon  his  "  Yamato- 
Damashii." 

There  has  been  a  revival  in  the  use  of  this  word  dur- 
ing the  last  decade.  The  old  Japan-Spirit  has  been  ap- 
pealed to,  and  the  watchword  of  the  anti-foreign  reaction 
has  been  "  Japan  for  the  Japanese."  Among  English- 
speaking  and  English-reading  Japanese  there  has  been 
a  tendency  to  give  this  term  a  meaning  deeper  and 
broader  than  the  historic  usage,  or  even  than  the  current 
usage,  will  bear.  One  Japanese  writer,  for  instance,  de- 
fines the  term  as  meaning,  "  a  spirit  of  loyalty  to  coun- 
try, conscience,  and  ideal."  An  American  writer  comes 
more  nearly  to  the  current  usage  in  the  definition  of  it 
as  "  the  aggressive  and  invincible  spirit  of  Japan." 
That  there  is  such  a  spirit  no  one  can  doubt  who  has  the 
slightest  ac(iuaintance  with  her  past  or  present  history. 

Concerning  the  recent  rise  of  patriotism  I  have  si)oken 
elsewhere,  perhaps  at  sufficient  length.  Nor  is  it  need- 
144 


PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS  145 

ful  to  present  extensive  evidence  for  the  statement  that 
the  Japanese  have  this  feehng  of  patriotism  in  a  marked 
degree.  One  or  two  rather  interesting  items  may,  how- 
ever, find  their  place  here. 

The  recent  war  with  China  was  the  occasion  of  focus- 
ing patriotism  and  fanning  it  into  flame.  Almost 
every  town  street,  and  house,  throughout  the  Empire, 
was  brilliantly  decked  with  lanterns  and  flags,  not  on  a 
single  occasion  only,  but  continuously.  Each  reported 
victory,  however  small,  sent  a  thrill  of  delight  through- 
out the  nation.  Month  after  month  this  was  kept  up. 
In  traveling  through  the  land  one  would  not  have  fan- 
cied that  war  was  in  progress,  but  rather,  that  a  long- 
continued  festival  was  being  observed. 

An  incident  connected  with  sending  troops  to  Korea 
made  a  deep  impression  on  the  nation.  The  Okayama 
Orphan  Asylum  under  the  efficient  management  of  its 
founder,  Mr.  Ishii,  had  organized  the  older  boys  into  a 
band,  securing  for  them  various  kinds  of  musical  instru- 
ments. These  they  learned  to  use  with  much  success. 
When  the  troops  were  on  the  point  of  leaving,  Mr.  Ishii 
went  with  his  band  to  the  port  of  Hiroshima,  erected  a 
booth,  prepared  places  for  heating  water,  and  as  often 
as  the  regiments  passed  by,  his  little  orphans  sallied 
forth  with  their  teapots  of  hot  tea  for  the  refreshment  of 
the  soldiers.  Each  regiment  was  also  properly  saluted, 
and  if  opportunity  offered,  the  little  fellows  played  the 
national  anthem,  "  Kimi-ga  yo,"  which  has  been  thus 
translated:  "  May  Our  Gracious  Sovereign  reign  a  thou- 
sand years,  reign  till  the  little  stone  grow  into  a  mighty 
rock,  thick  velveted  with  ancient  moss."  And  finally 
the  orphans  would  raise  their  shrill  voices  with  the 
rhythmical  national  shout,  "  Tei-koku  Ban-zai,  Tei-koku 
Ban-zai";  "Imperial-land,  a  myriad  years,  Imperial- 
land,  a  myriad  years."  This  thoughtful  farewell  was 
maintained  for  the  four  or  five  days  during  which  the 
troops  were  embarking  for  the  seat  of  war,  well  knowing 
that  some  would  never  return,  and  that  their  children 
would  be  left  fatherless  even  as  were  these  who  saluted 
them.  So  deep  was  the  impression  made  upon  the  sol- 
diers that  many  of  them  wept  and  many  a  bronzed  face 


146       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

bowed  in  loving  recognition  of  tlie  patriotism  of  these 
Christian  boys.  It  is  said  that  the  commander-in-chief 
of  the  forces  himself  gave  the  little  fellows  the  highest 
military  salute  in  returning  theirs. 

Throughout  the  history  of  Japan,  the  aim  of  every  re- 
bellious clan  or  general  was  first  to  get  possession  of 
the  Emperor.  Having  done  this,  the  possession  of  the 
Imperial  authority  was  unquestioned.  Whoever  was 
opposed  to  the  Emperor  was  technically  called  "  Cho- 
teki,"  the  enemy  of  the  throne,  a  crime  as  heinous  as 
treason  in  the  West.  The  existence  of  this  sentiment 
throughout  the  Empire  is  an  interesting  fact.  For,  at 
the  very  same  time,  there  was  the  most  intense  loyalty  to 
the  local  lord  or  "  daimyo."  This  is  a  fine  instance  of  a 
certain  characteristic  of  the  Japanese  of  which  I  must 
speak  more  fully  in  another  connection,  but  which,  for 
convenience,  I  term  "  nominality."  It  accepts  and,  ap- 
parently at  least,  is  satisfied  with  a  nominal  state  of 
affairs,  which  may  be  quite  different  from  the  real.  The 
theoretical  aspect  of  a  question  is  accepted  without  refer- 
ence to  the  actual  facts.  The  real  power  may  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  general  or  of  the  daimyo.  but  if  authority 
nominally  proceeds  from  the  throne,  the  theoretical  de- 
mands are  satisfied.  The  Japanese  themselves  describe 
this  state  as  "yumei-mujitsu."  In  a  sense. throughout  the 
centuries  there  has  been  a  genuine  loyalty  to  the  throne, 
but  it  has  been  of  the  "  yumei-mujitsu  "  type,  apparently 
satisfied  with  the  name  only.  In  recent  times,  however, 
there  has  been  growing  dissatisfaction  with  this  state  of 
afifairs.  Some  decades  before  Admiral  Ferry  appeared 
there  were  patriots  secretly  working  against  the  Toku- 
gawa  Shogunatc.  Called  in  Japanese  "  Kinnoka."  they 
may  be  properly  termed  in  English  "  Imperialists." 
Their  aim  was  to  overthrow  the  Shogunate  and  restore 
full  and  direct  authority  to  the  Emperor.  Not  a  few  lost 
their  lives  because  of  their  views,  ])ut  tliese  are  now 
honored  by  the  nation  as  patriots. 

There  is  a  tendency  among  scholars  to-day  to 
magnify  the  patriotism  and  l(\valty  of  preceding  ages, 
also  to  emj^hasize  the  dignity  and  Imperial  authority  of 
the  Emperor.     The  patriotic  spirit  is  now  so  strong  that 


PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS  147 

it  blinds  their  eyes  to  many  of  the  sahent  facts  of  their 
history.  Their  patriotism  is  more  truly  a  passion  than 
an  idea.  It  is  an  emotion  rather  than  a  conception.  It 
demands  certain  methods  of  treatment  for  their  ancient 
history  that  Western  scholarship  cannot  accept.  It  for- 
bids any  really  critical  research  into  the  history  of  the 
past,  since  it  might  cast  doubt  on  the  divine  descent  of 
the  Imperial  line.  It  sums  itself  up  in  passionate  ad- 
miration, not  to  say  adoration,  of  the  Emperor.  In  him 
all  virtues  and  wisdom  abound.  No  fault  or  lack  in 
character  can  be  attributed  to  him.  I  question  if  any 
rulers  have  ever  been  more  truly  apotheosized  by  any 
nation  than  the  Emperors  of  Japan.  The  essence  of 
patriotism  to-day  is  devotion  to  the  person  of  the  Em- 
peror. It  seems  impossible  for  the  people  to  distin- 
guish between  the  country  and  its  ruler.  He  is  the 
fountain  of  authority.  Lower  ranks  gain  their  right  and 
their  power  from '  him  alone.  Power  belongs  to  the 
people  only  because,  and  in  proportion  as,  he  has  con- 
ferred it  upon  them.  Even  the  Constitution  has  its  au- 
thority only  because  he  has  so  determined.  Should  he 
at  any  time  see  fit  to  change  or  withdraw  it,  it  is  exceed- 
ingly doubtful  whether  one  word  of  criticism  or  com- 
plaint would  be  publicly  uttered,  and  as  for  forcible  oppo- 
sition, of  such  a  thing  no  one  would  dream. 

Japanese  patriotism  has  had  some  unique  and  inter- 
esting features.  In  some  marked  respects  it  is  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  lands  in  which  democratic  thought 
has  held  sway.  For  1500  years,  under  the  military  social 
order,  loyalty  has  consisted  of  personal  attachment  to 
the  lord.  It  has  ever  striven  to  idealize  that  lord.  The 
"  yumei-mujitsu  "  characteristic  has  helped  much  in  this 
idealizing  process,  by  bridging  the  chasm  between  the 
prosaic  fact  and  the  ideal.  Now  that  the  old  form  of 
feudalism  has  been  abruptly  abolished,  with  its  local 
lords  and  loyalty,  the  old  sentiment  of  loyalty  naturally 
fixes  itself  on  the  Emperor.  Patriotism  has  perhaps 
gained  intensity  in  proportion  as  it  has  become  focal- 
ized. The  Emperor  is  reported  to  be  a  man  of  com- 
manding ability  and  good  sense.  It  is  at  least  true  that 
he  has  shown  wisdom  in  selecting  his  councilors.     There 


148        EVOLUTION  OF  THE   JAPANESE 

is  general  agreement  that  he  is  not  a  mere  puppet  in  the 
hands  of  his  advisers,  but  that  he  exercises  a  real  and 
direct  influence  on  the  government  of  the  day.  During 
the  late  war  with  China  it  was  currently  reported  that 
from  early  morning  until  late  at  night,  week  after  week 
and  month  after  month,  he  w^orked  upon  the  various 
matters  of  business  that  demanded  his  attention.  No 
important  move  or  decision  was  made  without  his  careful 
consideration  and  final  approval.  These  and  other 
noble  cjualities  of  the  present  Emperor  have,  without 
doubt,  done  much  toward  transferring  the  loj^alty  of 
the  people  from  the  local  daimyo  to  the  national 
throne. 

An  event  in  the  political  world  has  recently  occurred 
which  illustrates  pointedly  the  statements  just  made  in 
regard  to  the  enthusiastic  loyalty  of  the  people  toward 
the  Emperor.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  national 
finances  are  in  a  distressing  state  of  confusion,  and  not- 
withstanding the  struggle  which  has  been  going  on  be- 
tween successive  cabinets  and  political  parties,  the  for- 
mer insisting  on,  and  the  latter  refusing,  any  increase 
in  the  land  tax,  no  sooner  was  it  suggested  by  a 
small  political  party,  to  make  a  thank-ofTering  to  the 
Emperor  of  20,000,000  yen  out  of  the  final  payment  of 
the  war  indemnity  lately  received,  than  the  proposal  was 
taken  up  with  zeal  by  both  of  the  great  and  utterly  hos- 
tile political  parties,  and  immediately  by  both  houses  of 
the  Diet.  The  two  reasons  assigned  were,  "  First,  that 
the  victory  over  China  would  never  have  been  won,  nor 
the  indemnity  obtained,  had  not  the  Emperor  been  the 
victorious,  sagacious  Sovereign  that  he  is,  and  that, 
therefore,  it  is  only  right  that  a  portion  of  the  indemnity 
should  be  offered  to  him;  secondly,  that  His  Majesty  is 
in  need  of  money,  the  allowance  granted  by  the  state  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Imperial  Household  being  in- 
sufficient, in  view  of  the  greatly  enhanced  prices  of  com- 
modities and  the  large  donations  constantly  made  by 
His  Majesty  for  charitable  purposes."  *  This  act  of  the 
Diet  appeals  to  the  sentiment  of  the  people  as  the  prosaic, 
business-like  method  of  the  Occident  would  not  do.  The 
*  Jap  aft  Mail,  December  10,  1898, 


PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS  149 

significance  of  the  appropriation  made  by  the  Diet  will 
be  better  realized  if  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  the  post- 
bellum  programme  for  naval  and  military  expansion 
which  was  adopted  in  view  of  the  large  indemnity  (being, 
by  the  way,  50,000,000  yen),  already  calls  for  an  expendi- 
ture in  excess  of  the  indemnity.  Either  the  grand  pro- 
gramme must  be  reduced,  or  new  funds  be  raised,  yet 
the  leading  political  parties  have  been  absolutely  op- 
posed to  any  substantial  increase  of  the  land  tax,  which 
seems  to  be  the  only  available  source  of  increase  even  to 
meet  the  current  expenses  of  the  government,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  post-bellum  programme.  So  has  a  burst 
of  sentiment  buried  all  prudential  considerations.  This 
is  a  species  of  loyalty  that  Westerners  find  hard  to  ap- 
preciate. To  them  it  would  seem  that  the  first  mani- 
festation of  loyalty  would  be  to  provide  the  Emperor's 
Cabinet  and  executive  officers  with  the  necessary  funds 
for  current  expenses;  that  the  second  would  be  to  give 
the  Emperor  an  allowance  sufficient  to  meet  his  actual 
needs,  and  the  third, — if  the  funds  held  out, — to  make 
him  a  magnificent  gift.  This  sentimental  method  of  loy- 
alty to  the  Emperor,  however,  is  matched  by  many  details 
of  common  life.  A  sentimental  parting  gift  or  speech  will 
often  be  counted  as  more  friendly  than  thoroughly  busi- 
ness-like relations.  The  prosaic  Occidental  discounts 
all  sentiment  that  has  not  first  satisfied  the  demands  of 
business  and  justice.  Such  a  standard,  however,  seems 
'  to  be  repugnant  to  the  average  Japanese  mind. 
"^  The  theory  that  all  authority  resides  in  the  Emperor 
is  also  enforced  by  recent  history.  For  the  constitu- 
tion was  not  wrung  from  an  unwilling  ruler  by  an  ambi- 
tious people,  but  was  conferred  by  the  Emperor  of  his 
own  free  will,  under  the  advice  of  his  enlightened  and 
progressive  councilors. 

As  an  illustration  of  some  of  the  preceding  statements 
let  me  quote  from  a  recent  article  by  Mr.  Yamaguchi, 
Professor  of  History  in  the  Peeresses'  School  and  Lec- 
turer in  the  Imperial  Military  College.  After  speaking 
of  the  abolition  of  feudalism  and  the  establishment  of  a 
constitutional  monarchy,  he  goes  on  to  say:  "But  we 
must  not  suppose  that  the  sovereign  power  of  the  state 


ISO       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

has  been  transferred  to  the  Imi)erial  Diet.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Emperor  as  before.  .  . 
The  functions  of  the  government,  are  retained  in  the 
Emperor's  own  hands,  who  merely  delegates  them  to 
the  Diet,  the  Government  (Cabinet),  and  the  Judiciary, 
to  exercise  the  same  in  his  name.  The  present  form  of 
government  is  the  result  of  the  history  of  a  country 
which  has  enjoyed  an  existence  of  many  centuries. 
Each  country  has  its  own  peculiar  characteristics  which 
differentiate  it  from  others.  Japan,  too,  has  her  history, 
different  from  that  of  other  countries.  Therefore  we 
ought  not  to  draw  comparisons  between  Japan  and  other 
countries,  as  if  the  same  principles  applied  to  all  indis- 
criminately. The  Empire  of  Japan  has  a  history  of 
3000  [  !]  years,  which  fact  distinctly  marks  out  our 
nationality  as  unique.  The  monarch,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people,  is  not  merely  on  a  par  with  an  aristocratic  oli- 
garchy which  rules  over  the  inferior  masses,  or  a  few 
nobles  who  equally  divide  the  sovereignty  among  them- 
selves. According  to  our  ideas,  the  monarch  reigns  over 
and  governs  the  country  in  his  own  right,  and  not  by  virtue 
of  rights  conferred  by  the  constitution.  .  .  Our  Em- 
peror possesses  real  sovereignty  and  also  exercises  it. 
He  is  quite  different  from  other  rulers  who  possess  but 
a  partial  sovereignty.  .  .  He  has  inherited  the  rights  of 
sovereignty  from  his  ancestors.  Thus  it  is  quite  legiti- 
mate to  think  that  the  rights  of  sovereignty  exist  in  the 
Emperor  himself.  .  .  The  Empire  of  Japan  shall  be 
reigned  over  and  governed  by  a  line  of  EmjK^rors  un- 
broken for  ages  eternal.  (Constitution,  Art.  LXXIII.) 
.  .  .  The  sovereign  power  of  the  state  cannot  be  dis- 
sociated from  the  Imperial  Throne.  It  lasts  forever, 
along  with  the  Imperial  line  of  succession,  unbroken  for 
ages  eternal.  If  llic  liii])erial  house  cease  to  exist,  the 
Empire  falls." 

In  a  land  where  adopted  sons  are  practically  equiva- 
lent to  lineal  descendants  (another  instance  of  the 
"  yumei-mujitsu  "  type  of  thought),  and  where  marriage 
is  essentially  polygamous,  and  where  the  "  yumei- 
mujitsu  "  spirit  has  allowed  the  sovereignty  to  be 
usurped  in  fact,  though  it  may  not  be  in  name,  it  is  not 


PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS  1 5 1 

at  all  wonderful  that  the  nation  can  boast  of  a  longer  line 
of  Emperors  than  any  other  land.  But  when  monogamy 
becomes  the  rule  in  Japan,  as  it  doubtless  will  some  day, 
and  if  lineal  descent  should  be  considered  essential  to 
inheritance,  as  in  the  Occident,  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that 
the  Imperial  line  will  maintain  itself  unbroken  from 
father  to  son  indefinitely.  Although  the  present  Em- 
peror has  at  least  five  concubines  besides  his  wife,  the 
Empress,  and  has  had,  prior  to  1896,  no  less  than  thirteen 
children  by  them,  only  two  of  these  are  still  living,  both 
of  them  the  offspring  of  his  concubines ;  one  of  these  is 
a  son  born  in  1879,  proclaimed  the  heir  in  1887,  elected 
Crown  Prince  in  1889,  and  married  in  1900;  he  is  said  to 
be  in  delicate  health;  the  second  child  is  a  daughter  born 
in  1890.  Since  1896  several  children  have  been  born  to 
the  Emperor  and  two  or  three  have  died,  so  that  at  pres- 
ent writing  there  are  but  four  living  children.  These 
are  all  offspring  of  concubines.* 

In  speaking,  however,  of  the  Japanese  apotheosis  of 
their  Emperor,  we  must  not  forget  how  the  "  divine 
right  of  kings  "  has  been  a  popular  doctrine,  even  in  en- 
lightened England,  until  the  eighteenth  century,  and  is 
not  wholly  unknown  in  other  lands  at  the  present  day. 
Only  in  recent  times  has  the  real  source  of  sovereignty 
been  discovered  by  historical  and  political  students. 
That  the  Japanese  are  not  able  to  pass  at  one  leap  from 

*  I  have  found  it  difficult  to  secure  exact  information  on  the 
subject  of  the  Imperial  concubines  (who,  by  the  way,  have  a 
special  name  of  honor),  partly  for  the  reason  that  this  is  not  a 
matter  of  general  information,  and  partly  because  of  the  unwill- 
ingness to  impart  information  to  a  foreigner  which  is  felt  to 
tarnish  the  luster  of  the  Imperial  glory.  A  librarian  of  a  public 
library  refused  to  lend  a  book  containing  the  desired  facts,  say- 
ing that  foreigners  might  be  freely  informed  of  that  which  re- 
veals the  good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful  of  Japanese  history, 
customs,  and  character,  but  nothing  else.  By  the  educated  and 
more  earnest  members  of  the  nation  much  sensitiveness  is  felt, 
especially  in  the  presence  of  the  Occidental,  on  the  subject  of 
the  Imperial  concubinage.  It  is  felt  to  be  a  blot  on  Japan's  fair 
name,  a  relic  of  her  less  civilized  days,  and  is,  accordingly,  kept 
in  the  background  as  much  as  possible.  The  statements  given 
in  the  text  in  regard  to  the  number  of  the  concubines  and  chil- 
dren are  correct  so  far  as  they  go.  A  full  statement  might 
require  an  increase  in  the  figures  given. 


152        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

the  old  to  the  new  conception  in  regard  to  this  funda- 
mental element  of  national  authority  is  not  at  all  strange. 
Past  history,  together  with  that  which  is  recent,  fur- 
nishes a  satisfactory  explanation  for  the  peculiar  nature 
of  Japanese  patriotism.  This  is  clearly  due  to  the  nature 
of  the  social  order. 

A  further  fact  in  this  connection  is  that,  in  a  very  real 
sense,  the  existence  of  Japan  as  a  unified  nation  has  de- 
pended on  apotheosis.  It  is  the  method  that  all  ancient 
nations  have  adopted  at  one  stage  of  their  social  devel- 
opment for  expressing  their  sense  of  national  unity  and 
the  authority  of  national  law.  In  that  stage  of  social 
development  when  the  common  individual  counts  for 
nothing,  the  only  possible  conception  of  the  authority  of 
law  is  that  it  proceeds  from  a  superior  being — the 
highest  ruler.  And  in  order  to  secure  the  full  advan- 
tage of  authority,  the  supreme  ruler  must  be  raised  to 
the  highest  possible  pinnacle,  must  be  apotheosized. 
That  national  laws  should  be  the  product  of  the  un- 
valued units  which  compose  the  nation  was  unthinkable 
in  an  age  when  the  worth  of  the  individual  was  utterly 
unrecognized.  The  apotheosis  of  the  Emperor  was 
neither  an  unintelligible  nor  an  unreasonable  practice. 
But  now  that  an  individualistic,  democratic  organization 
of  society  has  been  introduced  resting  on  a  principle 
diametrically  opposed  to  that  of  apotheosis,  a  struggle 
of  most  profound  importance  has  been  inaugurated. 
Does  moral  or  even  national  authority  really  reside  in 
the  Emperor?  The  school-teachers  are  finding  great 
difficulty  in  teaching  morality  as  based  exclusively  on 
the  Imperial  Edict.  The  politicians  of  Japan  are  not 
content  with  leaving  all  political  and  state  authority  to 
the  Emperor.  Not  long  ago  (June,  1898),  for  the  first 
time  in  Japan,  a  Cabinet  acknowledging  responsil)ility  to 
a  political  party  took  the  place  of  one  acknowledging 
responsibility  only,  to  the  Emperor.  For  this  end  the 
politicians  have  been  working  since  the  first  meeting  of 
the  national  Diet.  Which  princii)le  is  to  succeed, 
apotheosis  and  absolute  Imperial  sovereignty  or  indi- 
vidualism with  democratic  sovereignty?  The  two  can- 
not permanently  live  together.     The  struggle  is  sure  to 


PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS  153 

be  intense,  for  the  question  of  authority,  both  political 
and  moral,  is  inevitably  involved. 

The  parallel  between  Japanese  and  Roman  apotheosis 
is  interesting.  I  can  present  it  no  better  than  by  quot- 
ing from  that  valuable  contribution  to  social  and  moral 
problems,  "  The  Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience,"  by 
Prof.  H.  S.  Nash:  "Yet  Rome  with  all  her  greatness 
could  not  outgrow  the  tribal  principle.  .  .  We  find 
something  that  reveals  a  fundamental  fault  in  the  whole 
system.  It  is  the  apotheosis  of  the  Emperors.  The 
process  of  apotheosis  was  something  far  deeper  than 
servility  in  the  subject  conspiring  with  vanity  in  the  ruler. 
It  was  a  necessity  of  the  state.  There  was  no  means  of 
insuring  the  existence  of  the  state  except  religion.  In 
the  worship  of  the  Csesars  the  Empire  reverenced  its 
own  law.  There  was  no  other  way  in  which  pagan 
Rome  could  guarantee  the  gains  she  had  made  for  civi- 
lization. Yet  the  very  thing  that  was  necessary  to  her 
was  in  logic  her  undoing.  .  .  The  worship  of  the  Em- 
peror undid  the  definition  of  equality  the  logic  of  the 
Empire  demanded.  Again  apotheosis  violated  the 
divine  unity  of  humanity  upon  which  alone  the  Empire 
could  securely  build."  * 

That  the  final  issue  of  Japan's  experience  will  be  like 
that  of  Rome  I  do  not  believe.  For  her  environment  is 
totally  different.  But  the  same  struggle  of  the  two  con- 
flicting principles  is  already  on.  Few,  even  among  the 
educated  classes,  realize  its  nature  or  profundity.  The 
thinkers  who  adhere  to  the  principle  of  apotheosis  do  so 
admittedly  because  they  see  no  other  way  in  which  to 
secure  authority  for  law,  whether  political  or  moral. 
Here  we  see  the  importance  of  those  conceptions  of 
God,  of  law,  of  man,  which  Christianity  alone  can  give. 

From  patriotism  we  naturally  pass  to  the  considera- 
tion of  courage.  Nothing  was  more  prized  and  praised  in 
Old  Japan.  In  those  days  it  was  the  deliberate  effort  of 
parents  and  educators  to  develop  courage  in  children. 
Many  were  their  devices  for  training  the  young  in 
bravery.  Not  content  with  mere  precept,  they  were  sent 
alone  on  dark  stormy  nights  to  cemeteries,  to  houses  re- 

*P.  59. 


154        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

puted  to  be  haunted,  to  dangerous  mountain  peaks,  and 
to  execution  grounds.  Alany  deeds  were  required  of  the 
young  whose  sole  aim  was  the  development  of  courage 
and  daring.  The  worst  name  you  could  give  to  a 
samurai  was  "  koshinuke "  (coward).  Many  a  feud 
leading  to  a  fatal  end  has  resulted  from  the  mere  use  of 
this  most  hated  of  all  opprobrious  epithets.  The  history 
of  Japan  is  full  of  heroic  deeds.  I  well  remember  a  con- 
versation with  a  son  of  the  old  samurai  type,  who  told 
me,  with  the  blood  tingling  in  his  veins,  of  bloody  deeds 
of  old  and  the  courage  they  demanded.  He  remarked 
incidentally  that,  until  one  had  slain  his  first  foe,  he  was 
ever  inclined  to  tremble.  "But  once  the  deed  had  been 
done,  and  his  sword  had  tasted  the  life  blood  of  a  man. 
fear  was  no  more.  He  also  told  me  how  for  the  sake  of 
becoming  inured  to  ghastly  sights  under  nerve-testing 
circumstances,  the  sons  of  samurai  were  sent  at  night 
to  the  execution  grounds,  there,  by  faint  moonlight  to 
see,  stuck  on  poles,  the  heads  of  men  who  had  been 
recently  beheaded. 

The  Japanese  emotion  of  courage  is  in  some  respects 
peculiar.  At  least  it  appears  to  diiTer  from  that  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon.  A  Japanese  seems  to  lose  all  self-control 
when  the  supreme  moment  comes;  he  throws  himself 
into  the  fray  with  a  frenzied  passion  and  a  fearless  mad- 
ness allied  to  insanity.  Such  is  the  impression  I  have 
gathered  from  the  descriptions  I  have  heard  and  the  pic- 
tures I  have  seen.  Even  the  pictures  of  the  late  war 
with  China  give  evidence  of  this. 

But  their  courage  is  not  limited  to  fearlessness  in  the 
face  of  death;  it  extends  to  complete  indifTerenco  to 
pain.  The  honorable  method  by  which  a  samurai  who 
had  transgressed  some  law  or  failed  in  some  point  of 
etiquette,  might  leave  this  world  is  well  known  to  all. 
the  "  seppuku,"  the  elegant  name  for  the  vulgar  term 
"  hara-kiri  "  or  "  belly-cutting."  To  one  who  is  sensi- 
tive to  tales  of  blood,  unexpurgated  Japanese  history 
must  be  a  dreadful  thing.  The  vastness  of  the  nnilti- 
tudes  who  died  by  their  own  hands  would  be  incredible, 
were  there  not  ample  evidence  of  the  most  convincing 
nature.     It  may  be  said  with  truth  that  suicide  became 


PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS  155 

apotheosized,  a  condition  that  I  suppose  cannot  be  said 
to  have  prevailed  in  any  other  land. 

In  thus  describing  the  Japanese  sentiment  in  regard 
to  "  seppuku,"  there  is,  however,  some  danger  of  mis- 
representing it.  "  Seppuku  "  itself  was  not  honored,  for 
in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  those  who  performed  it 
were  guilty  of  some  crime  or  breach  of  etiquette.  And' 
not  infrequently  those  who  were  condemned  to  commit 
"seppuku"  were  deficient  in  physical  courage;  in  such 
cases,  some  friend  took  hold  of  the  victim's  hand  and 
forced  him  to  cut  himself.  Such  cowards  were  always 
despised.  To  be  condemned  to  commit  "  seppuku  "  was 
a  disgrace,  but  it  was  much  less  of  a  disgrace  than  to  be 
beheaded  as  a  common  man,  for  it  permitted  the  samurai 
to  show  of  what  stufT  he  was  made.  It  should  be  stated 
further  that  in  the  case  of  "  seppuku,"  as  soon  as  the  act 
of  cutting  the  abdomen  had  been  completed,  always  by 
a  single  rapid  stroke,  someone  from  behind  would,  with 
a  single  blow,  behead  the  victim.  The  physical  agony  of 
"  seppuku  "  was,  therefore,  very  brief,  lasting  but  a  few 
seconds. 

I  can  do  no  better  than  quote  in  this  connection  a  para- 
graph from  the  "  Religions  of  Japan  "  by  W.  E.  Grilfis : 

"  From  the  prehistoric  days  when  the  custom  of 
'  Junshi,'  or  dying  with  the  master,  required  the  inter- 
ment of  living  retainers  with  their  dead  lord,  down 
through  all  the  ages  to  the  Revolution  of  1868,  when  at 
Sendai  and  Aidzu  scores  of  men  and  boys  opened  their 
bowels,  and  mothers  slew  their  infant  sons  and  cut  their 
own  throats,  there  has  been  flowing  a  river  of  suicides' 
blood  having  its  springs  in  devotion  of  retainers  to  mas- 
ters, and  of  soldiers  to  a  lost  cause.  .  .  Not  only  a 
thousand,  but  thousands  of  thousands  of  soldiers  hated 
their  parents,  wife,  child,  friend,  in  order  to  be  disciples 
to  the  supreme  loyalty.  They  sealed  their  creed  by 
emptying  their  own  veins.  .  .  The  common  Japanese 
novels  read  like  records  of  slaughter-houses.  No  Mo- 
lech  or  Shivas  won  more  victims  to  his  shrine  than  has 
this  idea  of  Japanese  loyalty,  which  is  so  beautiful  in 
theory  but  so  hideous  in  practice,  .  .  Could  the  statistics 


156       EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

of  the  suicides  during  this  long  period  be  collected,  their 
publication  would  excite  in  Christendom  the  utmost 
incredulity."  * 

I  well  remember  the  pride,  which  almost  amounted  to 
glee,  with  which  a  young  blood  gave  me  the  account  of 
a  mere  boy,  perhaps  ten  or  twelve  years  old,  who  cut  his 
bowels  in  such  a  way  that  the  deed  was  not  cjuite  com- 
plete, and  then  tying  his  "  obi  "  or  girdle  over  it,  walked 
into  the  presence  of  his  mother,  explained  the  circum- 
stances which  made  it  a  point  of  honor  that  he  should 
commit  "  seppuku,"  and  forthwith  untied  his  "  obi  "  and 
died  in  her  presence. 

These  are  the  ideals  of  courage  and  loyalty  that  have 
been  held  up  before  Japanese  youth  for  centuries. 
Little  comment  is  needful.  From  the  evolutionary 
standpoint,  it  is  relatively  easy  to  understand  the  rise  of 
these  ideas  and  practices.  It  is  clear  that  they  depend 
entirely  on  the  social  order.  With  the  coming  in  of  the 
Western  social  order,  feudal  lords  and  local  loyalty  and 
the  carrying  of  swords  were  abolished.  Are  the  Japa- 
nese any  less  courageous  now  than  they  were  thirty 
years  ago?  The  social  order  has  changed  and  the  ways 
of  showing  courage  have  likewise  changed.  That  is  all 
that  need  be  said. 

Are  we  to  say  that  the  Japanese  are  more  courageous 
than  other  peoples?  Although  no  other  people  have 
manifested  such  phenomena  as  the  Japanese  in  regard  to 
suicide  for  loyalty,  yet  any  true  appreciation  of  Western 
peoples  will  at  once  dispel  the  idea  that  they  lack 
courage.  Manifestations  of  courage  differ  according  to 
the  nature  of  the  social  order,  but  no  nation  could  long- 
maintain  itself,  to  say  nothing  of  coming  into  existence, 
without  a  high  degree  of  this  endowment. 

But  Japanese  courage  is  not  entirely  of  the  physical 
order,  although  that  is  the  form  in  which  it  has  chielly 
shown  itself  thus  far.  The  courage  of  having  and  hold- 
ing one's  own  convictions  is  known  in  jai)an  as  else- 
where. There  has  been  a  long  line  of  martyrs.  During 
the  decades  after  the  intrc^ductiiMi  of  Ihuldhism,  there 


PATRIOTISM— APOTHEOSIS  157 

was  such  opposition  that  it  required  much  courage  for 
converts  to  hold  to  their  behefs.  So,  too,  at  the  time  of 
the  rise  of  the  new  Buddhist  sects,  there  was  consider- 
able persecution,  especially  with  the  rise  of  the  Nichiren 
Shu.  And  when  the  testing  time  of  Christianity  came, 
under  the  edict  of  the  Tokugawas  by  which  it  was 
suppressed,  tens  of  thousands  were  found  who  preferred 
death  to  the  surrender  of  their  faith.  In  recent  times, 
too,  much  courage  has  been  shown  by  the  native  Chris- 
tians. 

As  an  illustration  is  the  following :  When  an 
eminent  American  teacher  of  Japanese  youth  returned 
to  Japan  after  a  long  absence,  his  former  pupils  gathered 
around  him  with  warm  admiration.  They  had  in  the  in- 
terval of  his  absence  become  leaders  among  the  trus- 
tees and  faculty  of  the  most  prosperous  Christian  college 
in  Japan.  He  was  accordingly  invited  to  deliver  a 
course  of  lectures  in  the  Chapel.  It  was  generally 
known  that  he  was  no  longer  the  earnest  Christian 
that  he  had  once  been,  when,  as  teacher  in  an  interior 
town,  he  had  inspired  a  band  of  young  men  who  be- 
came Christians  under  his  teaching  and  a  power  for 
good  throughout  the  land.  But  no  one  was  prepared 
to  hear  such  extreme  denunciations  of  Christian- 
ity and  Christian  missions  and  missionaries  as  consti- 
tuted the  substance  of  his  lectures.  At  first  the  matter 
was  passed  over  in  silence.  But,  by  the  end  of  the  sec- 
ond lecture,  the  missionaries  entered  a  protest,  urging 
that  the  Christian  Chapel  should  not  again  be  used  for 
such  lectures.  The  faculty,  however,  were  not  ready 
to  criticise  their  beloved  teacher.  The  third  lecture 
proved  as  abusive  as  the  others;  the  speaker  seemed  to 
have  no  sense  of  propriety.  A  glimpse  of  his  thought 
and  method  of  expression  may  be  gained  from  a  single 
sentence:  "I  have  been  commissioned,  gentlemen,  by 
Jesus  Christ,  to  tell  you  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
a  soul  or  a  future  life."  Although  the  missionary  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  urged  it,  the  Japanese  members,  most 
of  whom  were  his  former  pupils,  were  unwilling  to  take 
any  steps  whatever  to  prevent  the  continuation  of  the 
blasphemous  lectures.     The  students  of  the  institution 


158       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

accordingly  held  a  mass-meeting,  in  which  the  matter 
was  discussed,  and  it  was  decided  to  inform  the  speaker 
that  the  students  did  not  care  to  hear  any  more  such 
lectures.  The  question  then  arose  as  to'  who  would 
deliver  the  resolution.  There  was  general  hesitancy,  and 
anyone  who  has  seen  or  known  the  lecturer,  and  has 
heard  him  speak,  can  easily  understand  this  feehng;  for 
he  is  a  large  man  with  a  most  impressive  and  imperious 
manner.  The  young  man,  however,  who  had  perhaps 
been  most  active  in  agitating  the  matter,  and  who  had 
presented  the  resolution  to  the  meeting,  volunteered  to 
go.  He  is  slight  and  rather  small,  even  for  a  Japanese. 
Going  to  the  home  of  the  lecturer,  he  delivered  calmly 
the  resolution  of  the  students.  To  the  demand  as  to 
who  had  drawn  up  and  presented  the  resolution  to  the 
meeting,  the  reply  was:  "I,  sir."  That  ended  the  con- 
versation, but  not  the  matter.  From  that  day  the  idol- 
ized teacher  was  gradually  lowered  from  his  pedestal. 
But  the  moral  courage  of  the  young  man  who  could  say 
in  his  enraged  presence,  "  I,  sir,"  has  not  been  forgotten. 
Neither  has  that  of  the  young  man  who  had  acted  as 
interpreter  for  the  first  lecture;  not  only  did  he  decline 
to  act  in  that  capacity  any  longer,  but,' taking  the  first 
public  opportunity,  at  the  chapel  service  the  following 
day,  which  proved  to  be  Sunday,  he  went  to  the  plat- 
form and  asked  forgiveness  of  God  and  of  men  that  he 
had  uttered  such  language  as  he  had  been  compelled  to 
use  in  his  translating.  Here,  too,  was  moral  courage  of 
no  mean  order. 


XIV 
FICKLENESS— STOLIDITY— STOICISM 

A  FREQUENT  criticism  of  the  Japanese  is  that 
they  are  fickle;  that  they  run  from  one  fad  to  an- 
other, from  one  idea  to  another,  quickly  tiring  of 
each  in  turn.  They  are  said  to  lack  persistence  in  their 
amusements  no  less  than  in  the  most  serious  matters 
of  life. 

None  will  deny  the  element  of  truth  in  this  charge. 
In  fact,  the  Japanese  themselves  recognize  that  of  late 
their  progress  has  been  by  '*  waves,"  and  not  a  few  la- 
ment it.  A  careful  study  of  school  attendance  will  show 
that  it  has  been  subject  to  alternate  waves  of  popularity 
and  disfavor.  Private  schools  glorying  in  their  hun- 
dreds of  pupils  have  in  a  short  time  lost  all  but  a  few 
score.  In  1873  there  was  a  passion  for  rabbits,  certain 
varieties  of  which  were  then  for  the  first  time  introduced 
into  Japan.  For  a  few  months  these  brought  fabulous 
prices,  and  became  a  subject  of  the  wildest  speculation. 
In  1874-75  cock-fighting  was  all  the  rage.  Foreign  waltz- 
ing and  gigantic  funerals  were  the  fashion  one  year,  while 
wrestling  was  the  fad  at  another  time,  even  the  then 
prime  minister.  Count  Kuroda,  taking  the  lead.  But 
the  point  of  our  special  interest  is  as  to  whether  fickle- 
ness is  an  essential  element  of  Japanese  character,  and 
so  dominant  that  wherever  the  people  may  be  and  what- 
ever their  surrovmdings,  they  will  always  be  fickle;  or 
whether  this  trait  is  due  to  the  conditions  of  their  re- 
cent history.     Let  us  see. 

Prof.  Basil  H.  Chamberlain  says,  "  Japan  stood 
still  so  long  that  she  has  to  move  quickly  and  often  now 
to  make  up  for  lost  time."  This  states  the  case  pretty 
well.  Had  we  known  Japan  only  through  her  Tokugawa 
period,  the  idea  of  fickleness  would  not  have  occurred  to 
us;  on  the  contrary,  the  dominant  impression  would 

159 


i6o       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

have  been  that  of  the  permanence  and  fixity  of  her  life 
and  customs.  This  quality  or  appearance  of  fickleness 
is,  then,  a  modern  trait,  due  to  the  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances in  which  Japan  finds  herself.  The  occur- 
rence of  wave  after  wave  of  fresh  fashions  and  fads  is 
neither  strange  nor  indicative  of  an  essentially  fickle 
disposition.  Glancing  below  the  surface  for  a  moment, 
we  shall  see  that  there  is  an  earnestness  of  purpose 
which  is  the  reverse  of  fickle. 

\\'hat  nation,  for  example,  ever  voluntarily  set  itself 
to  learn  the  ways  and  thoughts  and  languages  of  foreign 
nations  as  persistently  as  Japan?  That  there  has  been 
fluctuation  of  intensity  is  not  so  surprising  as  that, 
through  a  period  of  thirty  years,  she  has  kept  steadily 
at  it.  Tens  of  thousands  of  her  young  men  are  now 
able  to  read  the  English  language  with  some  facility; 
thousands  are  also  able  to  read  German  and  French. 
Foreign  languages  are  compulsory  in  all  the  advanced 
schools.  A  regulation  going  into  force  in  September, 
1900,  requires  the  study  of  two  foreign  languages.  This 
has  been  done  at  a  cost  of  many  hundred  thousands  of 
dollars.  There  has  been  a  fairly  permanent  desire  and 
effort  to  learn  all  that  the  West  has  to  teach.  The  ele- 
ment of  fickleness  is  to  be  found  chiefly  in  connection 
with  the  methods  rather  than  in  connection  with  the 
ends  to  be  secured.  From  the  moment  when  Japan  dis- 
covered that  the  West  had  sources  of  power  unknown  to 
herself,  and  indispensable  if  she  expected  to  hold  her  own 
with  the  nations  of  the  world,  the  aim  and  end  of  all 
her  efforts  has  been  to  master  the  secrets  of  that  power. 
She  has  seen  that  education  is  one  important  means. 
That  she  should  stumble  in  the  adoption  of  educational 
methods  is  not  strange.  The  necessary  experience  is 
being  secured.  But  for  a  lesson  of  this  sort,  more  than 
one  generation  of  experience  is  required  of  a  nation. 
For  some  time  to  come  Japan  is  sure  to  give  signs  of 
unsteadiness,  of  lack  of  perfect  l)ahince. 

A  pitiful  sight  in  Japan  is  that  of  boys  not  more  than 
five  or  six  years  of  age  pushing  or  pulling  with  all  their 
might  at  heavily  loaded  hand-carts  drawn  by  their 
parents.     Yet  this  is  typical  of  one  aspect  of  Japanese 


FICKLENESS— STOLIDITY  i6i 

civilization.  The  work  is  largely  done  by  young  people 
under  thirty,  and  vast  multitudes  of  the  workers  are  un- 
der twenty  years  of  age.  This  is  true  not  only  of  menial 
labor,  but  also  in  regard  to  labor  involving  more  or  less 
responsibility.  In  the  post  offices,  for  instance,  the 
great  majority  of  the  clerks  are  mere  boys.  In  the 
stores  one  rarely  sees  a  man  past  middle  age  conduct- 
ing the  business  or  acting  as  clerk.  Why  are  the  young 
so  prominent?  Partly  because  of  the  custom  of  "abdi- 
cation." As  "  family  abdication  "  is  frequent,  it  has  a 
perceptible  efYect  on  the  general  character  of  the  nation, 
and  accounts  in  part  for  rash  business  ventures  and  other 
signs  of  impetuosity  and  unbalanced  judgment.  Fur- 
thermore, under  the  new  civilization,  the  older  men  have 
become  unfitted  to  do  the  required  work.  The  younger 
and  more  flexible  members  of  the  rising  generation  can 
quickly  adjust  themselves  to  the  new  conditions,  as  in 
the  schools,  where  the  older  men,  who  had  received  only 
the  regular  training  in  Chinese  classics,  were  utterly  in- 
competent as  teachers  of  science.  Naturally,  therefore, 
except  for  instruction  in  these  classics,  the  common- 
school  teachers,  during  the  earlier  decades,  were  almost 
wholly  young  boys.  The  extreme  youthfulness  of 
school-teachers  has  constantly  surprised  me.  In  the 
various  branches  of  government  this  same  phenomenon 
is  equally  common.  Young  men  have  been  pushed  for- 
ward into  positions  with  a  rapidity  and  in  numbers  un- 
known in  the  West,  and  perhaps  unknown  in  any  pre- 
vious age  in  Japan. 

The  rise  and  decline  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Japan 
has  been  instanced  as  a  sign  of  the  fickleness  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  is  a  mistaken  instance,  for  there  are  many  other 
causes  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  the  phenomenon 
in  question.  Let  me  illustrate  by  the  experience  of  an 
elderly  Christian.  He  had  been  brought  to  Christ 
through  the  teachings  of  a  young  man  of  great  bril- 
liancy, whose  zeal  was  not  tempered  with  full  knowledge 
— which,  however,  was  not  strange,  in  view  of  his  limited 
opportunities  for  learning.  His  instruction  was  there- 
fore narrow,  not  to  say  bigoted.  Still  the  elderly  gen- 
tleman found  the  teachings  of  the  young  man  sufficiently 


i62        EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

strong  and  clear  thoroughly  to  upset  all  his  old  ideas 
of  religion,  his  polytheism,  his  belief  in  charms,  his 
worship  of  ancestors,  and  all  kindred  ideas.  He  ac- 
cepted the  New  Testament  in  simple  unquestioning 
faith.  But,  after  six  or  eight  years,  the  young  instruc- 
tor began  to  lose  his  own  primitive  and  simple  faith. 
He  at  once  proceeded  to  attack  that  which  before  he  had 
been  defending  and  expounding.  Soon  his  whole  theo- 
logical position  was  changed.  Higher  criticism  and  re- 
ligious philosophy  were  now  the  center  of  his  preach- 
ing and  writing.  The  result  was  that  this  old  gentleman 
was  again  in  danger  of  being  upset  in  his  religious  think- 
ing. He  felt  that  his  new  faith  had  been  received  in  bulk, 
so  to  speak,  and  if  a  part  of  it  were  false,  as  his  young 
teacher  now  asserted,  how  could  he  know  that  any  of 
it  was  true?  Yet  his  heart's  experience  told  him  that  he 
had  secured  something  in  this  faith  that  was  real ;  he  was 
loath  to  lose  it;  consequently,  for  some  years  now,  he 
has  systematically  stayed  away  from  church  services, 
and  refrained  from  reading  magazines  in  which  these 
new  and  destructive  views  have  been  discussed;  he  has 
preferred  to  read  the  Bible  quietly  at  home,  and  to  have 
direct  communion  with  God,  even  though,  in  many  mat- 
ers of  Biblical  or  theoretical  science,  he  might  hold  his 
mistaken  opinions.  A  surface  view  of  this  man's  conduct 
might  lead  one  to  think  of  him  as  fickle;  but  a  deeper 
consideration  will  lead  to  the  opposite  conclusion. 

The  fluctuating  condition  of  the  Christian  churches 
is  not  cause  for  astonishment,  nor  is  it  to  be  wholly, 
if  at  all,  attributed  to  the  fickleness  of  the  national  char- 
acter, but  rather,  in  a  large  degree,  to  the  peculiar 
conditions  of  Japanese  life.  Tlie  early  Christians  had 
much  to  learn.  They  knew,  experimentally,  but  little 
of  Christian  truth.  The  whole  course  of  Christian 
thought,  the  historical  development  of  theology,  with 
the  various  heresies,  the  recent  discussions  resting  on 
the  so-called  "  higher  criticism  "  of  the  Bible,  together 
with  the  still  more  recent  investigations  into  the  history 
and  philosophy  of  religion  in  general,  w-cre  of  coin-se 
wholly  unknown  to  them.  Tliis  was  inevitable,  and 
they  were  blameless.      All  could  not  be  learned  at  once. 


FICKLENESS— STOLIDITY  1 63 

Nor  is  there  any  blame  attached  to  the  missionaries.  It 
was  as  impossible  for  them  to  impart  to  young  and  inex- 
perienced Christians  a  full  knowledge  of  these  matters 
as  it  was  for  the  latter  to  receive  such  information.  The 
primary  interest  of  the  missionaries  was  in  the  prac- 
tical and  everyday  duties  of  the  Christian  life,  in  the 
great  problem  of  getting  men  and  women  to  put  away 
the  superstitions  and  narrowness  and  sins  springing 
from  polytheism  or  practical  atheism,  and  getting  them 
started  in  ways  of  godliness.  The  training  schools  for 
evangelists  were  designed  to  raise  up  practical  workers 
rather  than  speculative  theologians.  Missionaries  con- 
sidered it  their  duty  (and  they  were  beyond  question 
right)  to  teach  religion  rather  than  the  science  and  phi- 
losophy of  religion.  When,  therefore,  the  evangelists 
discovered  that  they  had  not  been  taught  these  advanced 
branches  of  knowledge,  it  is  not  strange  that  some 
should  rush  after  them,  and,  in  their  zeal  for  that  which 
they  supposed  to  be  important,  hasten  to  criticise  their 
former  teachers.  As  a  result,  they  undermined  both 
their  own  faith  and  that  of  many  who  had  become  Chris- 
tians through  their  teaching. 

The  dullness  of  the  church  life,  so  conspicuous  at 
present  in  many  of  the  churches,  is  only  partly  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  Christians  are  tired  of  the  services.  It 
is  true  that  these  services  no  longer  afford  them  that 
mental  and  spiritual  stimulus  which  they  found  at  the 
first,  and  that,  lacking  this,  they  find  little  inducement  to 
attend.  But  this  is  only  a  partial  explanation.  Looking 
over  the  experience  of  the  past  twenty-five  years,  we 
now  see  that  the  intense  zeal  of  the  first  few  years  was  a 
natural  result  of  a  certain  narrowness  of  view.  It  is  an 
interesting  fact  that,  during  one  of  the  early  revivals  in 
the  Doshisha,  the  young  men  were  so  intense  and  ex- 
cited that  the  missionaries  were  compelled  to  restrain 
them.  These  young  Christians  felt  and  said  that  the 
missionaries  were  not  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit;  they 
accordingly  considered  it  their  duty  to  exhort  their  for- 
eign leaders,  even  to  chide  them  for  their  lack  of  faith. 
The  extraordinary  expectations  entertained  by  the  young 
Japanese  workers  of  those  days  and  shared  by  the  mis- 


i64       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

sionaries,  that  Japan  was  to  become  a  Christian  nation 
before  the  end  of  the  century,  was  due  in  large  measure 
to  an  ignorance  alike  of  Christianity,  of  human  nature, 
and  of  heathenism,  but,  under  the  peculiar  conditions 
of  life,  this  was  well-nigh  inevitable.  And  that  great  and 
sudden  changes  in  feeling  and  thought  have  come  over 
the  infant  churches,  in  consequence  of  the  rapid  acquisi- 
tion of  new  light  and  new  experience,  is  equally  inevi- 
table. These  changes  are  not  primarily  attributable  to 
fickleness  of  nature,  but  to  the  extraordinary  additions 
to  their  knowledge. 

There  is  good  reason  to  think,  however,  that  the 
period  of  these  rapid  fluctuations  is  passing  away.  All 
the  various  fads,  fancies,  and  follies,  together  with  the 
sciences,  philosophies,  ologies,  and  isms  of  the  Western 
world,  have  already  come  to  Japan,  and  are  fairly  well 
known.  No  essentially  new  and  sudden  experiences  lie 
before  the  people. 

Furthermore,  the  young  men  are  year  by  year  grow- 
ing older.  Experience  and  age  together  are  giving  a 
soberness  and  a  steadiness  otherwise  unattainable.  In 
the  schools,  in  the  government,  in  politics,  and  in  the 
judiciary,  and  in  the  churches,  men  of  years  and  of  train- 
ing in  the  new  order  are  becoming  relatively  numerous, 
and  erelong  they  will  be  in  the  majority.  We  may  expect 
to  see  Japan  gradually  settling  down  to  a  steadiness  and 
a  regularity  that  have  been  lacking  during  the  past  few 
decades.  The  newcomer  to  Japan  is  much  impressed 
with  the  expressionless  character  of  so  many  Japanese 
faces.  They  appear  like  the  images  of  Buddha,  who  is 
supposed  to  be  so  absorbed  in  profound  meditation  that 
the  events  of  the  passing  world  make  no  impression  upon 
him.  I  have  sometimes  heard  the  expression  "  putty 
face  "  used  to  describe  the  appearance  of  the  common 
Japanese  face.  This  immobility  of  the  Oriental  is  more 
conspicuous  to  a  newcomer  than  to  one  who  has  seen 
much  of  the  people  and  who  has  learned  its  significance. 
But  though  the  "  putty  "  efi'oct  wears  off,  there  remains 
an  impression  of  stoicism  that  never  fades  away,  l^hese 
two  features,  stolidity  and  stoicism,  are  so  closely  allied 
in  appearance  that  they  are  easily  mistaken,  yet  thoy  are 


FICKLENESS— STOLIDITY  165 

really  distinct.  The  one  arises  from  stupidity,  from  dull- 
ness of  mind.  The  other  is  the  product  of  elaborate 
education  and  patient  drill.  Yet  it  is  often  difificult  to 
determine  where  the  one  ends  and  the  other  begins. 

The  stolidity  of  stupidity  is,  of  course,  commonest 
among  the  peasant  class.  For  centuries  they  have  been 
in  closest  contact  with  the  soil ;  nothing  has  served  to 
awaken  their  intellectual  faculties.  Reading  and  writ- 
ing have  remained  to  them  profound  mysteries.  Their 
lives  have  been  narrow  in  the  extreme.  But  the  Japa- 
nese peasant  is  not  peculiar  in  this  respect.  Similar 
conditions  in  other  lands  produce  similar  results,  as  in 
France,  according  to  Millet's  famous  painting,  "  The 
Man  with  the  Hoe." 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  however,  that  this  stolidity  of 
stupidity  can  be  easily  removed.  I  have  often  heard 
comments  on  the  marked  change  in  the  facial  expression 
of  those  adults  who  learn  to  read  the  Bible.  Their  minds 
are  awakened;  a  new  light  is  seen  in  their  eyes  as  new 
ideas  are  started  in  their  minds. 

The  impression  of  stolidity  made  on  the  foreigner  is 
due  less,  however,  to  stupidity  than  to  a  stoical  educa- 
tion. For  centuries  the  people  have  been  taught  to  re- 
press all  expression  of  their  emotions.  It  has  been  re- 
quired of  the  inferior  to  listen  quietly  to  his  superior 
and  to  obey  implicitly.  The  relations  of  superior  and 
inferior  have  been  drilled  into  the  people  for  ages.  The 
code  of  a  military  camp  has  been  taught  and  enforced  in 
all  the  homes.  Talking  in  the  presence  of  a  superior, 
or  laughter,  or  curious  questions,  or  expressions  of  sur- 
prise, anything  revealing  tlie  slightest  emotion  on  the 
part  of  the  inferior  was  considered  a  discourtesy. 

Education  in  these  matters  was  not  confined  to  oral 
instruction;  infringements  were  punished  with  great 
rigor.  Whenever  a  daimyo  traveled  to  Yedo,  the  cap- 
ital, he  was  treated  almost  as  a  god  by  the  people.  They 
were  required  to  fall  on  their  knees  and  bow  their  faces 
to  the  ground,  and  the  death  penalty  was  freely  awarded 
to  those  who  failed  to  make  such  expressions  of  respect. 

One  source,  then,  of  the  systematic  repression  of  emo- 
tional expression  is  the  character  of  the  feudal  order  of 


i66        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

society  that  so  long  prevailed.  The  warrior  who  had 
best  control  of  his  facial  expression,  who  could  least  ex- 
pose to  his  foe  or  even  to  his  ordinary  friends  the  real 
state  of  his  feelings,  other  things  being  equal,  would  come 
off  the  victor.  In  further  explanation  of  this  repression 
is  the  religion  of  Buddha.  For  1200  years  it  has  helped 
to  mold  the  middle  and  the  lower  classes  of  the  people. 
According  to  its  doctrine,  desire  is  the  great  evil;  from 
it  all  other  evils  spring.  For  this  reason,  the  aim  of  the 
religious  life  is  to  suppress  all  desire,  and  the  most  nat- 
ural way  to  accom])lish  this  is  to  suppress  the  manifesta- 
tion of  desire;  to  maintain  passive  features  under  all 
circumstances.  The  images  of  Buddha  and  of  Buddhist 
saints  are  utterly  devoid  of  expression.  They  indicate 
as  nearly  as  possible  the  attainment  of  their  desire, 
namely,  freedom  from  all  desire.  This  is  the  ambition  of 
every  earnest  Buddhist.  Being  the  ideal  and  the  actual 
effort  of  life,  it  does  affect  the  faces  of  the  people.  Lack 
of  expression,  however,  does  not  prove  absence  of  de- 
sire. 

Every  foreigner  has  had  amusing  proof  of  this.  A 
common  experience  is  the  passing  of  a  group  of  Japa- 
nese who,  apparently,  give  no  heed  to  the  stranger. 
Neither  by  the  turn  of  the  head  nor  by  the  movement 
of  a  single  facial  muscle  do  they  betray  any  curiosity, 
yet  their  eyes  take  in  each  detail,  and  involuntarily 
follow  the  receding  form  of  the  traveler.  In  the  in- 
terior, where  foreigners  are  still  objects  of  curiosity, 
young  men  have  often  run  up  from  behind,  gone  to  a 
distance  ahead  of  me,  then  turned  abruptly,  as  though 
remembering  something,  and  walked  slowly  back  again, 
giving  me,  apparently,  not  the  slightest  attention.  The 
motive  was  the  desire  to  get  a  better  look  at  the  for- 
eigner. They  hoped  to  conceal  it  by  a  ruse,  for  there 
must  be  no  manifestation  of  curiosity. 

Phenomena  which  a  foreigner  may  attribute  to  a  lack 
of  emotion  of,  at  least,  to  its  repression,  mav  be  due 
to  some  very  different  cause.  Few  things,  for  instance, 
are  more  astonishing  to  the  Occidental  than  the  silence 
on  the  part  of  the  multitude  when  the  Fmpcror,  whom 
they  all  admire  and  love,  appears  on  the  street.    Under 


FICKLENESS— STOLIDITY  167 

circumstances  which  would  call  forth  the  most  enthu- 
siastic cheers  from  Western  crowds,  a  Japanese  crowd 
will  maintain  absolute  silence.  Is  this  from  lack  of  emo- 
tion? By  no  means.  Reverence  dominates  every 
breast.  They  would  no  more  think  of  making  noisy 
demonstrations  of  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor 
than  a  congregation  of  devout  Christians  would  think 
of  doing  the  same  during  a  religious  service.  This  idea 
of  reverence  for  superiors  has  pervaded  the  social  order 
— the  intensity  of  the  reverence  varying  with  the  rank 
of  the  superior.  But  a  change  has  already  begun.  Si- 
lence is  no  longer  enforced;  no  profound  bowings  to  the 
ground  are  now  demanded  before  the  nobility;  on  at 
least  one  occasion  during  the  recent  China-Japan  war 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  populace  found  audible  expression 
when  the  Emperor  made  a  public  appearance.  Even 
the  stoical  appearance  of  the  people  is  passing  away  un- 
der the  influence  of  the  new  order  of  society,  with  its 
new,  dominant  ideas.  Education  is  bringing  the  nation 
into  a  large  and  throbbing  life.  Naturalness  is  taking 
the  place  of  forced  repression.  A  sense  of  the  essential 
equality  of  man  is  springing  up,  especially  among  the 
young  men,  and  is  helping  to  create  a  new  atmosphere 
in  this  land,  where,  for  centuries,  one  chief  effort  has 
been  to  repress  all  natural  expression  of  emotion. 

While  touring  in  Kyushu  several  years  ago,  I  had  an 
experience  which  showed  me  that  the  stolidity,  or  vivac- 
ity, of  a  people  is  largely  dependent  on  the  prevailing 
social  order  rather  than  on  inherent  nature.  Those  who 
have  much  to  do  with  the  Japanese  have  noted  the  ex- 
treme quiet  and  reserve  of  the  women.  It  is  a  trait  that 
has  been  lauded  by  both  native  and  foreign  writers. 
Because  of  this  characteristic  it  is  difficult  for  a  strangei; 
to  carry  on  conversation  with  them.  They  usually  reply 
in  monosyllables  and  in  low  tones.  The  very  expression 
of  their  faces  indicates  a  reticence,  a  calm  stolidity,  and 
a  lack  of  response  to  the  stimulus  of  social  intercourse 
that  is  striking  and  oppressive  to  an  Occidental.  I  have 
always  found  it  a  matter  of  no  little  difficulty  to  become' 
acquainted  with  the  women,  and  especially  with  the 
young  women,  in  the  church  with  which  I  have  been  con- 


i68        EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

nected.  With  the  older  women  this  reticence  is  not  so 
marked.     Now  for  my  story: 

One  day  I  called  on  a  family,  expecting  to  meet  the 
mother,  with  whom  I  was  well  acquainted.  She  proved 
to  be  out;  but  a  daughter  of  whom  I  had  not  before 
heard  was  at  home,  and  I  began  to  talk  with  her.  Con- 
trary to  all  my  previous  experience,  this  young  girl  of 
less  than  twenty  years  looked  me  straight  in  the  face 
with  perfect  composure,  replied  to  my  questions  with 
clear  voice  and  complete  sentences,  and  asked  questions 
in  her  turn  without  the  slightest  embarrassment.  I  was 
amazed.  Here  was  a  Japanese  girl  acting  and  talking 
with  the  freedom  of  an  American.  How  was  this  to  be 
explained?  Difificult  though  it  appeared,  the  problem 
was  easily  solved.  The  young  lady  had  been  in  America, 
having  spent  several  years  in  Radcliffe  College.  There 
it  was  that  her  Japanese  demureness  was  dropped  and 
the  American  frankness  and  vivacity  of  manner  acquired. 
It  was  a  matter  simply  of  the  prevailing  social  customs, 
and  not  of  her  inherent  nature  as  a  Japanese. 

And  this  conclusion  is  enforced  by  the  further  fact 
that  there  is  a  marked  increase  in  vivacity  in  those  who 
become  Christian.  The  repressive  social  restraints  of 
the  old  social  order  are  somewhat  removed.  A  freedom 
is  allowed  to  individuals  of  the  Christian  community,  in 
social  life,  in  conversation  between  men  and  women,  in 
the  holding  of  private  opinions,  which  the  non-Christian 
order  of  society  did  not  permit.  Sociability  between 
the  sexes  was  not  allowed.  The  new  freedom  naturally 
results  in  greater  vivacity  and  a  far  freer  play  of  facial 
expression  than  the  older  order  could  produce.  The 
vivacity  and  sociability  of  the  geisha  (dancing  and  sing- 
ing girls),  whose  business  it  is  to  have  social  relations 
with  the  men,  freely  conversing  with  them,  still  further 
substantiates  the  view  that  the  stolid,  irrepressive  fea- 
tures of  the  usual  Japanese  woman  are  social,  not  essen- 
tial, characteristics.  The  very  same  girls  exhibit  alter- 
nately stolidity  and  vivacity  according  as  they  are  act- 
ing as  geisha  or  as  respectable  members  of  society. 

This  completes  our  direct  study  of  the  various  ele- 
ments characterizing  the  emotional  nature  of  the  Japa- 


FICKLENESS-STOLIDITY  1 69 

nese.  It  is  universally  admitted  that  the  people  are  con- 
spicuously emotional.  We  have  shown,  however,  that 
their  feelings  are  subject  to  certain  remarkable  sup- 
pressions. 

It  remains  to  be  asked  why  the  Japanese  are  more 
emotional  than  other  races?  One  reason  doubtless  is 
that  the  social  conditions  were  such  as  to  stimulate  their 
emotional  rather  than  their  intellectual  powers.  The 
military  system  upon  which  the  social  structure  rested 
kept  the  nation  in  its  mental  infancy.  Twenty-eight 
millions  of  farmers  and  a  million  and  a  half  of  soldiers 
was  the  proportion  during  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Education  was  limited  to  the  soldiers.  But 
although  they  cultivated  their  minds  somewhat,  their 
very  occupation  as  soldiers  required  them  to  obey  rather 
than  to  think;  their  hand-to-hand  conflicts  served 
mightily  to  stimulate  the  emotions.  The  entire  feudal 
order  likewise  was  calculated  to  have  the  same  effect. 
The  intellectual  life  being  low,  its  inhibitions  were  cor- 
respondingly weak.  When,  in  the  future,  the  entire 
population  shall  have  become  fairly  educated,  and  taught 
to  think  independently;  and  when  government  by  the 
people  shall  have  become  much  more  universal,  throw- 
ing responsibility  on  the  people  as  never  before,  and 
stimulating  discussion  of  the  general  principles  of  life, 
of  government,  and  of  law,  then  must  the  emotional 
features  of  the  nation  become  less  conspicuous. 

It  is  a  question  of  relative  development.  As  children 
run  to  extremes  of  thought  and  action  on  the  slightest 
occasion,  simply  because  their  intellects  have  not  come 
into  full  activity,  weeping  at  one  moment  and  laughing 
at  the  next,  so  it  is  with  national  life.  Where  the  gen- 
eral intellectual  development  of  a  people  is  retarded,  the 
emotional  manifestations  are  of  necessity  correspond- 
ingly conspicuous. 

Even  so  fundamental  a  racial  trait,  then,  as  the  emo- 
tional, is  seen  to  be  profoundly  influenced  by  the  prevail- 
ing social  TDrder.  The  emotional  characteristics  which 
distinguish  the  Japanese  from  other  races  are  due,  in  the 
last  analysis,  to  the  nature  of  their  social  order  rather 
than  to  their  inherent  nature  or  brain  structure. 


XV 

ESTHETIC  CHAR.^CTERISTICS 

IN  certain  directions,  the  Japanese  reveal  a  develop- 
ment of  aesthetic  taste  which  no  other  nation  has 
reached.  The  general  appreciation  of  landscape- 
views  well  illustrates  this  point.  The  home  and  garden 
of  the  average  workman  are  far  superior  artistically  to 
those  of  the  same  class  in  the  West,  There  is  hardly  a 
home  without  at  least  a  diminutive  garden  laid  out  in 
artistic  style  with  miniature  lake  and  hills  and  winding 
walks.  And  this  garden  exists  solely  for  the  delight  of 
the  eye. 

The  general  taste  displayed  in  many  little  ways  is  a 
constant  delight  to  the  Western  "  barbarian  "  when  he 
first  comes  to  Japan.  Nor  does  this  delight  vanish  with 
time  and  familiarity,  though  it  is  tempered  by  a  later 
perception  of  certain  other  features.  Indeed,  the  more 
one  knows  of  the  details  of  their  artistic  taste,  the  more 
does  he  appreciate  it.  The  "  toko-no-ma."  for  example, 
is  a  variety  of  alcove  usually  occupying  half  of  one  side 
of  a  room.  It  indicates  the  place  of  honor,  and  guests 
are  always  urged  to  sit  in  front  of  it.  The  floor  of  the 
"  toko-no-ma  "  is  raised  four  or  five  inches  above  the 
level  of  the  room  and  should  never  be  stepped  upon. 
In  this  "toko-no-ma"  is  usually  placed  some  work  of  art, 
or  a  vase  with  flowers,  and  on  the  wall  is  hung  a  picture 
or  a  few  Chinese  characters,  written  by  some  famous 
caligraphist,  wliich  are  changed  witli  the  seasons.  The 
woodwork  and  the  coloring  of  this  part  of  the  room  is 
of  the  choicest.  The  "  toko-no-ma  "  of  the  main  room 
of  the  house  is  always  restful  to  the  eye;  this  "honor- 
able spot"  is  found  in  at  least  one  room  in  every  house; 
and  if  the  owner  has  moderate  means,  there  are  two  or 
three  such  rooms.  Only  the  homes  of  the  poorest  of  the 
poor  are  without  this  ornament. 
170 


.ESTHETIC   CHARACTERISTICS  171 

The  Japanese  show  a  refined  taste  in  the  coloring  and 
decoration  of  rooms;  natural  woods,  painted  and  pol- 
ished, are  common;  every  post  and  board  standing  erect 
must  stand  in  the  position  in  which  it  grew.  A  Japanese 
knows  at  once  whether  a  board  or  post  is  upside  down, 
though  it  would  often  puzzle  a  Westerner  to  decide  the 
matter.  The  natural  wood  ceilings  and  the  soft  yel- 
lows and  blues  of  the  walls  are  all  that  the  best  trained 
Occidental  eye  could  ask.  Dainty  decorations  called 
the  "  ramma,"  over  the  neat  "  fusuma,"  consist  of  deli- 
cate shapes  and  quaint  designs  cut  in  thin  boards,  and 
serve  at  once  as  picture  and  ventilator.  The  drawings, 
too,  on  the  "  fusuma  "  (solid  thick  paper  sliding  doors 
separating  adjacent  rooms  or  shutting  off  the  closet)  are 
simple  and  neat,  as  is  all  Japanese   pictorial  art. 

Japanese  love  for  flowers  reveals  a  high  aesthetic  de- 
velopment. Not  only  are  there  various  flower  festivals 
at  which  times  the  people  flock  to  suburban  gardens  and 
parks,  but  sprays,  budding  branches,  and  even  large 
boughs  are  invariably  arranged  in  the  homes  and  public 
halls.  Every  church  has  an  immense  vase  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  proper  arrangement  of  flowers  and  of 
flowering  sprays  and  boughs  is  a  highly  developed  art. 
It  is  often  one  of  the  required  studies  in  girls'  schools. 
I  have  known  two  or  three  men  who  made  their  entire 
living  by  teaching  this  art.  Miniature  flowering  trees 
are  reared  with  consummate  skill.  An  acquaintance  of 
mine  glories  in  230  varieties  of  the  plum  tree,  all  in  pots, 
some  of  them  between  two  and  three  hundred  years  old. 
Shinto  and  Buddhist  temples  also  reveal  artistic  quali- 
ties most  pleasing  to  the  eye. 

But  the  main  point  of  our  interest  lies  in  the  explana- 
tion of  this  characteristic.  Is  the  aesthetic  sense  more 
highly  developed  in  Japan  than  in  the  West?  Is  it  more 
general?  Is  it  a  matter  of  inherent  nature,  or  of 
civilization? 

In  trying  to  meet  these  problems,  I  note,  first  of  all, 
that  the  development  of  the  Japanese  aesthetic  taste  is 
one-sided;  though  advanced  in  certain  respects  it  is  be- 
lated in  others.  In  illustration  is  the  sense  of  smell.  It 
will  not  do  to  say  that  "  the  Japanese  have  no  use  for  the 


172       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

nose,"  and  that  the  love  of  sweet  smells  is  unknown. 
Sir  Rutherford  Alcock'sofif-quoted sentence  that  "in  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  fertile  countries  in  the  whole 
world  the  flowers  have  no  scent,  the  birds  no  song, 
and  the  fruit  and  vegetables  no  flavor,"  is  quite  mis- 
leading, for  it  has  only  enough  truth  to  make  it  the  more 
deceptive.  It  is  true  that  the  cherry  blossom  has  little 
or  no  odor,  and  that  its  beauty  lies  in  its  exquisite  color- 
ing and  abounding  luxuriance,  but  most  of  the  native 
flowers  are  praised  and  prized  by  the  Japanese  for  their 
odors,  as  well  as  for  their  colors,  as  the  plum,  the 
chrysanthemum,  the  lotus,  and  the  rose.  The  fragrance 
of  flowers  is  a  frequent  theme  in  Japanese  poetry. 
Japanese  ladies,  like  those  of  every  land,  are  fond  of  deli- 
cate scents.  Cologne  and  kindred  wares  find  wide  sale 
in  Japan,  and  I  am  told  that  expensive  musk  is  not  in- 
frequently packed  away  with  the  clothing  of  the  wealthy. 

But  in  contrast  to  this  appreciation  is  a  remarkable 
indifference  to  certain  foul  odors.  It  is  amazing  what 
horrid  smells  the  cultivated  Japanese  will  endure  in  his 
home.  What  we  conceal  in  the  rear  and  out  of  the  way, 
he  very  commonly  places  in  the  front  yard;  though  this 
is,  of  course,  more  true  of  the  country  than  of  large 
towns  or  cities.  It  would  seem  as  if  a  high  aesthetic  de- 
velopment should  long  ago  have  banished  such  sights 
and  smells.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  a}slhetics 
of  the  subject  does  not  seem  to  have  entered  the  national 
mind,  any  more  than  have  the  hygienics  of  the  same 
subject. 

In  explanation  of  these  facts,  may  it  not  be  that  the 
Japanese  method  of  agriculture  has  been  a  potent  hin- 
drance to  the  aesthetic  development  of  the  sense  of  smell? 
In  primitive  times,  when  wealth  was  small,  the  only 
easy  method  which  the  people  had  of  preserving  the  fer- 
tilizing properties  of  that  which  is  removed  from  our 
cities  by  the  sewer- system  was  such  as  we  still  find  in 
use  in  Japan  to-day.  Perhaps  the  necessities  of  the  case 
have  toughened  the  mental,  if  not  the  physical,  sense  of 
the  people.  Perhaps  the  unxsthetic  character  of  the 
sights  and  smells  has  been  submerged  in  the  great  value 
of  fertilizing  materials.     Then,  too,  with  the  Occidental, 


iESTHETIC    CHARACTERISTICS  173 

the  thought  is  common  that  such  odors  are  indications 
of  seriously  unhealthful  conditions.  We  are  accord- 
ingly offended  not  simply  by  the  odor  itself,  but  also  by 
the  associations  of  sickness  and  death  which  it  suggests. 
Not  so  the  unsophisticated  Oriental.  Such  a  correla- 
tion of  ideas  is  only  now  arising  in  Japan,  and  changes 
are  beginning  to  be  made,  as  a  consequence. 

I  cannot  leave  this  point  without  drawing  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  development  of  the  sense  of  smell  in 
these  directions  is  relatively  recent,  even  in  the  West. 
Of  all  the  non-European  nations  and  races,  I  have  no 
doubt  Japan  is  most  free  from  horrid  smells  and  putrid 
odors.  And  in  view  of  our  own  recent  emancipation  it 
is  not  for  us  to  marvel  that  others  have  made  little 
progress.  Rather  is  it  marvelous  that  we  should  so 
easily  forget  the  hole  from  which  we  have  been  so  re- 
cently digged. 

In  turning  to  study  certain  features  of  Japanese  pic- 
torial art,  we  notice  that  a  leading  characteristic  is  that 
of  simplicity.  The  greatest  results  are  secured  with  the 
fewest  possible  strokes.  This  general  feature  is  in  part 
due  to  the  character  of  the  instrument  used,  the  "  fude," 
"  brush."  This  same  brush  answers  for  writing.  It  ad- 
mits of  strong,  bold  outlines;  and  a  large  brush  allows 
the  exhibition  of  no  slight  degree  of  skill.  As  a  result, 
"  writing  "  is  a  fine  art  in  Japan.  Hardly  a  family  that 
makes  any  pretense  at  culture  but  owns  one  or  more 
framed  specimens  of  writing.  In  Japan  these  rank  as 
pictures  do  or  mottoes  in  the  West,  and  are  prized  not 
merely  for  the  sentiment  expressed,  but  also  for  the  skill 
displayed  in  the  use  of  the  brush.  Skillful  writers  be- 
come famous,  often  receiving  large  sums  for  small 
"  pictures  "  which  consist  of  but  two  or  three  Chinese 
characters. 

No  doubt  the  higher  development  of  appreciation  for 
natural  scenery  among  the  people  in  general  is  largely 
due  to  the  character  of  the  scenery  itself.  Steep  hills 
and  narrow  valleys  adjoin  nearly  every  city  in  the  land. 
Seas,  bays,  lakes,  and  rivers  are  numerous;  reflected 
mountain  scenes  are  common ;  the  colors  are  varied  and 
marked.     Flowering  trees  of  striking  beauty  are  abun- 


174       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

dant.  Any  people  living  under  these  physical  condi- 
tions, and  sufficiently  advanced  in  civilization  to  have 
leisure  and  culture,  can  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  with 
such  wealth  of  beauty  in  the  scenery  itself. 

In  the  artistic  reproduction  of  this  scenery,  however, 
Japanese  artists  are  generally  supposed  to  be  inferior  to 
those  of  the  West. 

As  often  remarked,  Japanese  art  has  directed  its  chief 
endeavor  to  animals  and  to  nature,  thus  failing  to  give 
to  man  his  share  of  attention.  This  curious  one-sided- 
ness  shows  itself  particularly  in  painting  and  in  sculp- 
ture. In  the  former,  when  human  beings  are  the  sub- 
ject, the  aim  has  apparently  been  to  extol  certain  char- 
acteristics; in  warriors,  the  military  or  heroic  spirit;  in 
wise  men,  their  wisdom;  in  monks  and  priests,  their  mas- 
tery over  the  passions  and  complete  attainment  of  peace; 
in  a  god,  the  moral  character  which  he  is  supposed  to 
represent.  Art  has  consequently  been  directed  to  bring- 
ing into  prominence  certain  ideal  features  which  must 
be  over-accentuated  in  order  to  secure  recognition; 
caricatures,  rather  than  lifelike  forms,  are  the  frequent 
results.  The  images  of  multitudes  of  gods  are  frightful 
to  behold;  the  aim  being  to  show  the  character  of  the 
emotion  of  the  god  in  the  presence  of  evil.  These  idols 
are  easily  misunderstood,  for  we  argue  that  the  more 
frightful  he  is,  the  more  vicious  must  be  the  god  in  his 
real  character;  not  so  the  Oriental.  To  him  the  more 
frightful  the  image,  the  more  noble  the  character. 
Really  evil  gods,  such  as  demons,  are  always  repre- 
sented, I  think,  as  deformed  creatures,  partly  human 
and  partly  beast.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  in  this  con- 
nection, that  idols  are  an  imported  feature  of  Japanese 
religion;  Shinto  to  this  day  has  no  "  graven  image."  All 
idols  are  Buddhistic.  Moreover,  tbcy  arc  but  copies  of 
the  hideous  idols  of  India;  the  Japanese  artistic  genius 
has  added  nothing  to  their  grotesque  appearance.  But 
the  point  of  interest  for  us  is  that  the  aesthetic  taste 
which  can  revel  in  flowers  and  natural  scenery  has 
never  delivered  Japanese  art  from  truly  uncesthctic 
representations  of  human  beings  and  of  gods. 

Standing  recently  before  a  toy  store  and  looking  at 


iESTHETIC    CHARACTERISTICS  175 

the  numberless  dolls  offered  for  sale,  I  was  impressed 
afresh  with  the  lack  of  taste  displayed,  both  in  coloring 
and  in  form;  their  conventionality  was  exceedingly  tire- 
some; their  one  attractive  feature  was  their  absurdity. 
But  the  moment  I  turned  away  from  the  imitations  of 
human  beings  to  look  at  the  imitations  of  nature,  the 
whole  impression  was  changed,  I  was  pleased  with  the 
artistic  taste  displayed  in  the  perfectly  imitated,  deli- 
cately colored  flowers.     They  were  beautiful  indeed. 

Why  has  Japanese  art  made  so  little  of  man  as  man? 
Is  it  due  to  the  "  impersonality  "  of  the  Orient,  as  urged 
by  some?  This  suggests,  but  does  not  give,  the  correct 
interpretation  of  the  phenomenon  in  question.  The 
reason  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  ruling  ideas  of  Oriental 
civilization.  Man,asman,has  not  been  honored  or  highly 
esteemed.  As  a  warrior  he  has  been  honored;  conse- 
quently, when  pictured  or  sculptured  as  a  warrior,  he  has 
worn  his  armor ;  his  face,  if  visible,  is  not  the  natural  face 
of  a  man,  but  rather  that  of  a  passionate  victor,  slaying  his 
foe  or  planning  for  the  same.  And  so  with  the  priests 
and  the  teachers,  the  emperors  and  the  generals ;  all  have 
been  depicted,  not  for  what  they  are  in  themselves,  but 
for  the  rank  which  they  have  attained;  they  are  accord- 
ingly represented  with  their  accouterments  and  robes 
and  the  characteristic  attitudes  of  their  rank.  The 
effort  to  preserve  their  actual  appearance  is  relatively 
rare.  Manhood  and  womanhood,  apart  from  social  rank, 
have  hardly  been  recognized,  much  less  extolled  by  art. 
This  feature,  then,  corresponds  to  the  nature  of  the 
Japanese  social  order.  The  art  of  a  land  necessarily 
reveals  the  ruling  ideals  of  its  civilization.  As  Japan 
failed  to  discover  the  inherent  nature  and  value  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood,  estimating  them  only  on  a  utili- 
tarian basis,  so  has  her  art  reflected  this  failure. 

Apparently  it  has  never  attempted  to  depict  the  nude 
human  form.  This  is  partly  explained,  perhaps,  by  the 
fact  that  the  development  of  a  perfect  physical  form 
through  exercise  and  training  has  not  been  a  part  of 
Oriental  thought.  Labor  of  every  sort  has  been  re- 
garded as  degrading.  Training  for  military  skill  and 
prowess  has  indeed  been  common  among  the  military 


176       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

classes;  but  the  skill  and  strength  themselves  have  been 
the  objects  of  thought,  rather  than  the  beauty  of  the 
muscular  development  which  they  produce.  When  we 
recall  the  prominent  place  which  the  games  of  Greece 
took  in  her  civilization  previous  to  her  development  of 
art,  and  the  stress  then  laid  on  perfect  bodily  form,  we 
shall  better  understand  why  there  should  be  such  differ- 
ence in  the  development  of  the  art  of  these  two  lands. 
I  have  never  seen  a  Japanese  man  or  youth  bare  his  arm 
to  show  with  pride  the  development  of  his  Inceps;  and  so 
far  as  I  have  observed,  the  pride  which  students  in  the 
United  States  feel  over  well-developed  calves  has  no 
counterpart  in  Japan — this,  despite  the  fact  that  the 
average  Japanese  has  calves  which  would  turn  the 
American  youth  green  with  envy. 

From  the  absence  of  the  nude  in  Japanese  art  it  has 
been  urged  that  Japan  herself  is  far  more  morally  pure 
than  the  West.  Did  the  moral  life  of  the  people  cor- 
respond to  their  art  in  this  respect,  the  argument  would 
have  force.  Unfortunately,  such  does  not  seem  to  be  the 
case.  It  is  further  suggested  as  a  reason  that  the  bodily 
form  of  Oriental  peoples  is  essentially  una^sthetic;  that 
the  men  are  either  too  fat  or  too  lean,  and  the  women 
too  plump  when  in  the  bloom  of  youth  and  too  wrinkled 
and  fllabby  when  the  first  bloom  is  over.  The  absurdity 
of  this  suggestion  raises  a  smile,  and  a  query  as  to  the 
experience  which  its  author  must  have  had.  For  any 
person  who  has  lived  in  Japan  must  have  seen  indi- 
viduals of  both  sexes,  whom  the  most  fastidious  painter 
or  sculptor  would  rejoice  to  secure  as  models. 

It  might  be  thought  that  a  truly  artistic  people,  who 
are  also  somewhat  immoral,  would  have  developed 
much  skill  in  the  portrayal  of  the  nude  female  form. 
But  such  an  attempt  does  not  seem  to  have  been  made 
until  recent  times,  and  in  imitation  of  Western  art.  At 
least  such  attempts  have  not  been  recognized  as  art  nor 
have  they  been  preserved  as  such.  I  have  never  seen 
either  statue  or  ])icture  of  a  nude  Japanese  woman. 
Even  the  pictures  of  famous  prostitutes  are  alwavs  fault- 
lessly attired.  The  number  and  size  of  the  conventional 
hairpins,  and  the  gaudy  coloring  of  the  clothing,  alone 


iESTHETIC    CHARACTERISTICS  177 

indicate  the  immoral  character  of  the  woman  repre- 
sented. 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred,  however,  that  immoral  pic- 
tures have  been  unknown  in  Japan,  for  the  reverse  is 
true.  Until  forcibly  suppressed  by  the  government 
under  the  incentive  of  Western  criticism,  there  was  per- 
fect freedom  to  produce  and  sell  licentious  and  lascivious 
pictures.  The  older  foreign  residents  in  Japan  testify 
to  the  frequency  with  which  immoral  scenes  were  de- 
picted and  exposed  for  sale.  Here  I  merely  say  that 
these  were  not  considered  works  of  art;  they  were  re- 
produced not  in  the  interests  of  the  aesthetic  sense,  but 
wholly  to  stimulate  the  taste  for  immoral  things. 

The  absence  of  the  nude  from  Japanese  art  is  due  to 
the  same  causes  that  led  to  the  relative  absence  of  all 
distinctively  human  nature  from  art.  Manhood  and 
womanhood,  as  such,  were  not  the  themes  they  strove 
to  depict. 

A  curious  feature  of  the  artistic  taste  of  the  people  is 
the  marked  fondness  for  caricature.  It  revels  in  absurd 
accentuations  of  special  features.  Children  with  pro- 
truding foreheads;  enormously  fat  little  men;  grotesque 
dwarf  figures  in  laughable  positions;  these  are  a  few 
common  examples.  Nearly  all  of  the  small  drawings 
and  sculpturings  of  human  figures  are  intentionally 
grotesque.  But  the  Japanese  love  of  the  grotesque  is 
not  confined  to  its  manifestation  in  art.  It  also  reveals 
itself  in  other  surprising  ways.  It  is  difficult  to  realize 
that  a  people  who  revel  in  the  beauties  of  nature  can 
also  delight  in  deformed  nature;  yet  such  is  the  case. 
Stunted  and  dwarfed  trees,  trees  whose  branches  have 
been  distorted  into  shapes  and  proportions  that  nature 
would  scorn — these  are  sights  that  the  Japanese  seem  to 
enjoy,  as  well  as  "  natural "  nature.  Throughout  the 
land,  in  the  gardens  of  the  middle  and  higher  classes, 
may  be  found  specimens  of  dwarfed  and  stunted  trees 
which  have  required  decades  to  raise.  The  branches, 
too,  of  most  garden  shrubs  and  trees  are  trimmed  in 
fantastic  shapes.  What  is  the  charm  in  these  distor- 
tions? First,  perhaps,  the  universal  human  interest  in 
anything  requiring  skill.     Think  of  the  patience  and  per-* 


178       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

sistence  and  experimentation  necessary  to  rear  a  dwarf 
pear  tree  twelve  or  fifteen  inches  high,  growing  its  full 
number  of  years  and  bearing  full-size  fruit  in  its  season! 
And  second  is  the  no  less  universal  human  interest  in 
the  strange  and  abnormal.  All  primitive  people  have 
this  interest.  It  shows  itself  in  their  religions.  Ab- 
normal stones  are  often  objects  of  religious  devotion. 
Although  I  cannot  affirm  that  such  objects  are  wor- 
shiped in  Japan  to-day,  yet  I  can  say  that  they  are  fre- 
quently set  up  in  temple  grounds  and  dedicated  with 
suitable  inscriptions.  Where  nature  can  be  made  to 
produce  the  abnormal,  there  the  interest  is  still  greater. 
It  is  a  living  miracle.  Witness  the  cocks  of  Tosa,  dis- 
tinguished by  their  two  or  three  tail  feathers  reaching 
the  extraordinary  length  of  ten  or  even  fifteen  feet,  the 
product  of  ages  of  special  breeding. 

According  to  the  ordinary  use  of  the  term,  aesthetics 
has  to  do  with  art  alone.  Yet  it  also  has  intimate  rela- 
tions with  both  speech  and  conduct.  Poetry  depends 
for  its  very  existence  on  aesthetic  considerations.  Al- 
though little  conscious  regard  is  paid  to  aesthetic  claims 
in  ordinary  conversation,  yet  people  of  culture  do,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  pay  it  much  unconscious  attention.  In 
conduct  too,  aesthetic  ideas  are  often  more  dominant 
than  we  suppose.  The  objection  of  the  cultured  to  the 
ways  of  the  boorish  rests  on  aesthetic  grounds.  This  is 
true  in  every  land.  In  the  matter  of  conduct  it  is  some- 
times hard  to  draw  the  line  between  aesthetics  and  ethics, 
for  they  shade  imperceptibly  into  one  another;  so  much 
so  that  they  are  seen  to  be  complementary  rather  than 
contradictory.  Though  it  is  doubtless  true  that  con- 
duct aesthetically  defective  may  not  be  defective  ethic- 
ally, still  is  it  not  quite  as  true  that  conduct  bad  from 
the  ethical  is  bad  also  from  the  xsthctical  standpoint? 

In  no  land  have  aesthetic  considerations  had  more  force 
in  molding  both  speech  and  conduct  than  in  Japan. 
Not  a  sentence  is  uttered  by  a  Japanese  but  has  the  char- 
acteristic marks  of  aesthcticism  woven  into  its  very 
structure.  By  means  of  "  honorifics  "  it  is  seldom  neces- 
sary for  a  speaker  to  be  so  pointedly  vulgar  as  even  to 
mention  self.     There  are  few  points  in  the  language  so 


^ESTHETIC    CHARACTERISTICS         179 

difficult  for  a  foreigner  to  master,  whether  in  speaking 
himself,  or  in  listening  to  others,  as  the  use  of  these 
honorific  words.  The  most  delicate  shades  of  courtesy 
and  discourtesy  may  be  expressed  by  them.  Some 
writers  have  attributed  the  relative  absence  of  the  per- 
sonal pronouns  from  the  language  to  the  dominating 
force  of  impersonal  pantheism.  I  am  unable  to  take 
this  view  for  reasons  stated  in  the  later  chapters  on 
personality. 

Though  the  honorific  characteristics  of  the  language 
seem  to  indicate  a  high  degree  of  aesthetic  development, 
a  certain  lack  of  delicacy  in  referring  to  subjects  that 
are  ruled  out  of  conversation  by  cultivated  people  in  the 
West  make  the  contrary  impression  upon  the  uniniti- 
ated. Such  language  in  Japan  cannot  be  counted  im- 
pure, for  no  such  idea  accompanies  the  words.  They 
must  be  described  simply  as  aesthetically  defective.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  imply  that  there  is  no  impure  conversa- 
tion in  Japan.  I  only  say  that  the  particular  usages  to 
which  I  refer  are  not  necessarily  a  proof  of  moral 
tendency.  A  realistic  baldness  prevails  that  makes  ho 
efifort  to  conceal  even  that  which  is  in  its  nature  unpleas- 
ant and  unsesthetic.  A  spade  is  called  a  spade  without 
the  slightest  hesitation.  Of  course  specific  illustrations 
of  such  a  point  as  this  are  out  of  place.  Esthetic  con- 
siderations forbid. 

And  how  explain  these  unsesthetic  phenomena?  By 
the  fact  that  Japan  has  long  remained  in  a  state  of  primi- 
tive development.  Speech  is  but  the  verbal  expression 
of  life.  Every  primitive  society  is  characterized  by  a 
bald  literalism  shocking  to  the  aesthetic  sense  of  societies 
which  represent  a  higher  stage  of  culture.  In  Japan, 
until  recently,  little  effort  has  been  made  to  keep  out  of 
sight  objects  and  acts  which  we  of  the  West  have  con- 
sidered disagreeable  and  repulsive.  Language  alters 
more  slowly  than  acts.  Laws  are  making  changes  in 
the  latter,  and  they  in  time  will  take  effect  in  the  former. 
But  many  decades  will  doubtless  pass  before  the  culti- 
vated classes  of  Japan  will  reach,  in  this  respect,  the 
standard  of  the  corresponding  classes  of  the  West. 

As  for  the  aesthetics  of  conduct  in  Japan,  enough  is  in- 


i8o      EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

dicated  by  what  has  been  said  already  concerning  the 
aesthetics  of  speech.  Speech  and  conduct  are  but  diverse 
expressions  of  the  same  inner  hfc.  Japanese  etiquette 
has  been  fashioned  on  the  feudaHstic  theory  of  society, 
with  its  numberless  gradations  of  inferior  and  superior^ 
Assertive  individualism,  while  allowed  a  certain  range 
among  the  samurai,  always  had  its  well-marked  limits. 
The  mass  of  the  people  were  compelled  to  walk  a  nar- 
row line  of  respectful  obedience  and  deference  both  in 
form  and  speech.  The  constant  aim  of  the  inferior  was 
to  please  the  superior.  That  individuals  of  an  inferior 
rank  had  any  inherent  rights,  as  opposed  to  those  of  a 
superior  rank,  seldom  occurred  to  them.  .Furthermore, 
this  whole  feudal  system,  with  its  characteristic  etiquette 
of  conduct  and  speech,  was  authoritatively  taught  by 
moralists  and  religious  leaders,  and  devoutly  believed 
by  the  noblest  of  the  land.  Ethical  considerations, 
therefore,  combined  powerfully  with  those  that  were 
social  and  aesthetic  to  produce  "  the  most  polite  race  on 
the  face  of  the  globe."  Recent  developments  of  rude- 
ness and  discourtesy  among  themselves  and  toward  for- 
eigners have  emphasized  my  general  contention  that 
these  characteristics  are  not  due  to  inherent  race  nature, 
but  rather  to  the  social  order. 

How  are  we  to  account  for  the  wide  aesthetic  develop- 
ment of  all  classes  of  the  Japanese?  As  already  sug- 
gested, the  beautiful  scenery  explains  much.  But  I  pass 
at  once  to  the  significant  fact  that  although  the  classes 
of  Japanese  society  were  widely  differentiated  in  social 
rank,  yet  they  lived  in  close  proximity  to  each  other. 
There  was  no  spatial  gulf  of  separation  preventing  the 
lower  from  knowing  fully  and  freely  the  thoughts,  ideals, 
and  customs  of  the  upper  classes.  The  transmission  of 
culture  was  thus  an  easy  matter,  in  spite  of  social 
gradations. 

Moreover,  the  character  of  the  building  materials,  and 
the  methods  of  construction  used  by  the  more  prosper- 
ous among  the  people,  were  easily  imitated  in  kind,  if 
not  in  costliness,  by  the  less  prosperous.  Take,  for  ox- 
amj)lc,  the  structure  of  the  room;  it  is  always  of  certain 
fixed  proportions,  that  the  uniform  mats  may  be  easily 


/ESTHETIC    CHARACTERISTICS         i8i 

fitted  to  it.  The  mats  themselves  are  always  made  of  a 
straw  "  toko,"  **  bed,"  and  an  "  omote,"  "  surface,"  of 
woven  straw;  they  vary  greatly  in  value,  but,  of  whatever 
grade,  may  always  be  kept  neat  and  fresh  at  compara- 
tively small  cost.  The  walls  of  the  average  houses  are 
made  of  mud  wattles.  The  outer  layers  of  plaster  con- 
sist of  selected  earth  and  tinted  lime.  Whether  put 
up  at  large  or  small  expense,  these  walls  may  be 
neat  and  attractive.  So,  too,  with  other  parts  of  the 
house. 

The  utter  lack  of  independent  thinking  throughout  the 
middle  and  lower  classes,  and  the  constant  desire  of  the 
inferior  to  imitate  the  superior,  have  also  helped  to  make 
the  culture  of  the  classes  the  possession  of  the  masses. 
This  subserviency  and  spirit  of  imitation  has  been  further 
stimulated  by  the  enforced  courtesy  and  deference  and 
obedience   of  the   common   people. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted,  however,  that 
the  universality  of  culture  in  Japan  is  more  apparent 
than  real.  The  appearance  is  due  in  part  to  the  lack  of 
furniture  in  the  homes.  Without  chairs  or  tables,  bed- 
steads or  washstands,  and  the  multitude  of  other  things 
invariably  found  in  the  home  of  the  Occidental,  it  is  easy 
for  the  Japanese  housewife  to  keep  her  home  in  perfect 
order.     No  special  culture  is  needful  for  this. 

How  it  came  about  that  the  Japanese  people  adopted 
their  own  method  of  sitting  on  the  feet,  I  cannot  say; 
neither  have  I  heard  any  plausible  explanation  of  the 
practice.  Yet  this  habit  has  relieved  them  of  all  neces- 
sity for  heavy  furniture.  Given  the  custom  of  sitting 
on  the  feet,  and  a  large  part  of  the  furniture  of  the 
house  will  be  useless.  Already  is  the  introduction  of 
furniture  after  Western  patterns  producing  changes  in 
the  homes  of  the  people;  and  it  will  be  interesting  to 
see  whether  the  aesthetic  sense  of  the  Japanese  will  be 
able  to  assimilate  and  harmonize  with  itself  these  useful, 
but  bulky  and  unsesthetic,  elements  of  Occidental  civili- 
zation. 

That  no  part  of  the  fine  taste  of  the  Japanese  is  due 
to  the  general  civilization,  rather  than  to  the  individual 
possession    of  the   aesthetic   faculty,    may   be  inferred 


i82        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

from  many  little  signs.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that,  follow- 
ing the  long-established  social  fashions,  the  women  usu- 
ally display  good  taste  in  the  choice  of  colors  for  their 
clothing,  it  sometimes  happens  that  they  also  manifest 
not  the  slightest  sense  of  the  harmony  of  colors.  Daugh- 
ters of  wealthy  families  will  array  themselves  in  brilliant 
discordant  hues,  yet  apparently  without  causing  the 
wearers  or  their  friends  the  slightest  aesthetic  discomfort. 
Little  children  are  arrayed  in  clothing  that  would  doubt- 
less put  Joseph's  coat  of  many  colors  quite  out  of  coun- 
tenance. Combinations  and  brilliancy  that  to  the  West- 
ern eye  of  culture  seem  crude  and  gaudy,  typical  of  bar- 
baric splendor,  are  in  constant  use,  and  are  apparently 
thought  to  be  fine.  The  Japanese  display  both  taste 
and  its  lack  in  the  choice  of  colors  for  clothing;  this 
contradiction  is  the  more  striking  in  view  of  the  taste 
manifest  in  the  decorations  of  the  homes  of  all  classes 
of  the  people.  Few  sights  are  more  ludicrously  unces- 
thetic  than  the  red,  yellow,  and  blue  worsted  crocheted 
caps  and  shawls  for  infants,  which  shock  all  our  ideas  of 
aesthetic  harmony. 

In  connection  with  Western  ways  or  articles  of  cloth- 
ing, the  native  aesthetic  faculty  often  seems  to  take  its 
flight.  In  a  foreign  house  many  a  Japanese  seems  to 
lose  his  sense  of  fitness.  I  have  had  schoolboys,  and 
even  gentlemen,  enter  my  home  with  hobnailed  muddied 
boots,  without  wiping  their  feet  on  the  conspicuous  door 
mat,  which  is  the  more  remarkable  since,  in  their  own 
homes,  they  invariably  take  ofif  their  shoes  on  entering. 
I  have  frecfuently  noticed  that  in  railway  cars  the  first 
comers  monopolize  the  seats,  and  the  later  ones  receive 
not  the  slightest  notice,  being  often  compelled  to  stand 
for  an  hour  at  a  time,  although,  with  a  little  moving, 
there  would  be  abundant  room  for  all.  I  have  noticed 
this  so  often  that  I  cannot  think  it  an  exceptional  oc- 
currence. I  do  not  believe  it  to  be  intentional  rudeness, 
but  to  be  due  simply  to  a  lack  of  real  heart  politeness. 
Yet  a  true  and  deep  resthctic  development,  so  far  at 
least  as  relates  to  conduct,  to  say  nothing  of  the  spirit 
of  altruism,  would  not  permit  such  indifference  to  an- 
other's discomfort. 


iESTHETIC   CHARACTERISTICS  183 

My  explanation  for  this,  and  for  all  similar  defects  in 
etiquette,  is  somewhat  as  follows.  Etiquette  is  popularly- 
conceived  as  consisting  of  rules  of  conduct,  rather  than 
as  the  outward  expression  of  the  state  of  the  heart. 
From  time  immemorial  rules  for  the  ordinary  affairs  of 
life  have  been  formulated  by  superiors  and  have  been 
taught  the  people.  In  all  usual  and  conventional 
relations,  therefore,  the  average  farmer  and  peasant 
know  how  to  express  perfect  courtesy.  But  in  certain 
situations,  as  in  foreign  houses  and  the  railroad  car, 
where  there  are  no  precedents  to,  follow,  or  rules  to  obey, 
all  evidence  of  politeness  takes  its  flight.  The  old  rules 
do  not  fit  the  new  conditions.  Not  being  grounded 
on  the  inner  principles  of  etiquette,  the  people  are  not 
able  to  formulate  new  rules  for  new  conditions.  To  the 
Westerner,  on  the  other  hand,  these  seem  to  follow  from 
the  simplest  principles  of  common  sense  and  kindliness. 
The  general  collapse  of  etiquette  in  Japan,  which  native 
writers  note  and  deplore,  is  due,  therefore,  not  only  to 
the  withdrawal  of  feudal  pressure,  but  also  to  intro- 
duction of  strange  circumstances  for  which  the  people 
have  no  rules,  and  to  the  fact  that  the  people  have  not 
been  taught  those  underlying  principles  of  high  courtesy 
which  are  applicable  on  all  occasions. 

An  impression  seems  to  have  gained  currency  in  the 
United  States  that  the  unsesthetic  features  seen  in  Ja- 
pan to-day  are  due  to  the  debasing  influences  of  West- 
ern art  and  Occidental  intercourse.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  a  certain  type  of  tourist,  ignorant  of  Japa- 
nese art,  by  greedily  buying  strange,  gaudy  things  at 
high  prices,  has  stimulated  a  morbid  production  of  truly 
unaesthetic  pseudo-Japanese  art.  But  this  accounts  for 
only  a  small  part  of  the  grossly  inartistic  features  of 
Japan.  The  instances  given  of  hideous  worsted  bibs 
for  babes  and  collars  for  dogs,  combining  in  the  closest 
proximity  the  most  uncomplementary  and  mutually  re- 
pellent colors,  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  foreign 
art  or  foreign  intercourse.  What  foreigner  ever  deco- 
rated a  little  lapdog  with  a  red-green-yellow-blue-and 
purple  crocheted  collar,  four  or  five  inches  wide? 

Westerners  have  been  charmed  with  the  exquisite  col- 


i84        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ored  photographs  produced  in  Japan.  It  is  strange,  yet 
true,  that  the  same  artistic  hand  that  produces  these 
beautiful  effects  will  also,  by  a  slight  change  of  tints, 
produce  the  most  unnatural  and  spectral  views.  Yet 
the  strangest  thing  is,  not  that  he  produces  them,  but  that 
he  does  not  seem  conscious  of  the  defect,  for  he  will  put 
them  on  sale  in  his  own  shop  or  send  them  to  purchasers 
in  America,  without  the  slightest  apparent  hesitation. 
The  constant  care  of  the  purchaser  in  selection  and  his 
insistence  on  having  only  truly  artistic  work  are  what 
keep  the  Japanese  artist  up  to  the  standard. 

If  other  evidence  is  needed  of  aesthetic  defect  in  the  still 
unoccidentalized  Japanese  taste  let  the  doubter  go  to  any 
popular  second-grade  Shinto  shrine  or  Buddhist  temple. 
Here  unsesthetic  objects  and  sights  abound.  Hideous 
idols,  painted  and  unpainted,  big  and  little,  often  dec- 
orated with  soiled  bibs;  decaying  to-rii;  ruined  sub- 
shrines;  conglomerate  piles  of  cast-off  paraphernalia, 
consisting  of  broken  idols,  old  lanterns,  stones,  etc., 
filthy  towels  at  the  holy-water  basins,  piously  offered  to 
the  gods  and  piously  used  by  hundreds  of  dusty  pilgrims; 
equally  filthy  bell-ropes  hung  in  front  of  the  main  shrines, 
pulled  by  ten  thousand  hands  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
deity;  travel-stained  hands,  each  of  which  has  left  its 
mark  on  the  once  beautiful  enormous  tasselated  cord; 
ex-voto  tufts  of  human  hair;  scores  of  pictures,  where 
the  few  may  be  counted  works  of  art  while  the  rest  are 
hideous  beyond  belief;  frightful  faces  of  tengu,  with  their 
long  noses  and  menacing  teeth,  decorated  with  scores  of 
spit-balls  or  even  with  mud-balls ;  these  are  some  of  the 
more  conspicuous  unaesthetic  features  of  multitudes  of 
popular  shrines  and  temples.  And  none  of  these  can 
be  attributed  to  the  debasing  influence  of  Western  art. 
And  these  inartistic  features  will  be  found  accompany- 
ing scrupulous  neatness  in  well-swept  walks,  new  sub- 
shrines,  floral  decorations,  and  much  that  pleases  the 
eye — a  strange  compound  of  the  beautiful  and  the  ugly. 
Truly  the  aesthetic  development  of  the  Japanese  is  cu- 
riously one-sided. 

A  survey  of  Japanese  musical  history  leads  to  the  con- 
clusion that  while  the  peoi)lc  are  fairly  developetl  in  cer- 


^ESTHETIC   CHARACTERISTICS  185 

tain  aspects  of  the  aesthetics  of  music,  such  as  rhythm, 
they  are  certainly  undeveloped  in  other  directions — in 
melody,  for  example,  and  in  harmony.  Their  instru- 
mental music  is  primitive  and  meager.  They  have  no 
system  of  musical  notation.  The  love  of  music,  such  as 
it  is,  is  well-nigh  universal.  Their  solo-vocal  music, 
a  semi-chanting  in  minors,  has  impressive  elements;  but 
these  are  due  to  the  passionate  outbursts  and  plaintive 
wails,  rather  than  to  the  musically  aesthetic  character 
of  the  melodies.  The  universal  twanging  samisen,  a 
species  of  guitar,  accompanied  by  the  shrill,  hard  voices 
of  the  geisha  (singing  girls),  marks  at  once  the  universal- 
ity of  the  love  of  music  and  the  undeveloped  quality  of 
the  musical  taste,  both  vocal  and  instrumental.  But 
in  comparing  the  musical  development  of  Japan  with 
that  of  the  West,  we  must  not  forget  how  recent  is  that 
of  the  former. 

The  conditions  which  have  served  to  develop  musical 
taste  in  the  West  have  but  recently  come  to  Japan. 
Sufficient  time  has  not  yet  elapsed  for  the  nation  to  make 
much  visible  progress  in  the  lines  of  Occidental  music. 
But  it  has  already  done  something.  The  popularity  of 
brass  bands,  the  wide  introduction  of  organs,  their  man- 
ufacture in  this  land,  their  use  in  all  public  schools,  the 
exclusive  use  of  Occidental  music  in  Christian  churches, 
the  ability  of  trained  individuals  in  foreign  vocal  and  in- 
strumental music — all  these  facts  go  to  show  that  in 
time  we  may  expect  great  musical  evolution  in  Japan. 
Tliose  who  doubt  this  on  the  ground  of  inherent  race 
nature  may  be  reminded  of  the  evolution  which  has  taken 
place  among  the  Hawaiians  during  the  past  two  genera- 
tions. From  being  a  race  manifesting  marked  defi- 
ciency in  music  they  have  developed  astonishing  musical 
taste  and  ability.  During  a  recent  visit  to  these  isl- 
ands after  an  absence  of  twenty-seven  years,  I  attended 
a  Sunday-school  exhibition,  which  was  largely  a  musical 
contest;  the  voices  were  sweet  and  rich;  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  part  songs,  easily  carried  through  by  chil- 
dren and  adults,  revealed  a  musical  sense  that  surpasses 
any  ordinary  Sunday  school  of  the  United  States  or 
England  with  which  I  am  acquainted. 


i86        EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

The  development  of  Japanese  literature  likewise  con- 
spicuously reflects  the  ruling  ideas  of  the  social  order, 
and  reveals  the  dependence  of  literary  taste  on  the  order. 
As  in  other  aspects  in  Japanese  aesthetic  development, 
so  in  this  do  we  see  marked  lack  of  balance.  "  It  is 
wonderful  what  felicity  of  phrase,  melody  of  versifica- 
tion, and  true  sentiment  can  be  compressed  within  the 
narrow  limits  (of  the  Tanka).  In  their  way  nothing  can 
be  more  perfect  than  some  of  these  little  poems."  * 
The  deficiencies  of  Japanese  poetry  have  been  remarked 
by  the  foreigners  most  competent  to  judge.  The  follow- 
ing general  characterization  from  the  volume  just 
quoted  merits  attention. 

"  Narrow  in  its  scope  and  resources,  it  is  chiefly  re- 
markable for  its  limitations — for  what  it  has  not,  rather 
than  what  it  has.  In  the  first  place  there  are  no  long 
poems.  There  is  nothing  which  even  remotely  resembles 
an  epic — no  Iliad  or  Divina  Commedia — not  even  a 
Nibelungen  Lied  or  Chevy  Chase.  Indeed,  narrative 
poems  of  any  kind  are  short  and  very  few,  the  only  ones 
which  I  have  met  with  being  two  or  three  ballads  of  a 
sentimental  cast.  Didactic,  philosophical,  political,  and 
satirical  i)oems  are  also  conspicuously  absent.  The 
Japanese  muse  does  not  meddle  with  such  subjects,  and 
it  is  doubtful  whether,  if  it  did,  the  native  Pegasus  pos- 
sesses sufficient  staying  power  for  them  to  be  dealt  with 
adequately.  For  dramatic  poetry  we  have  to  wait  until 
the  fourteenth  century.  Even  then  there  are  no  complete 
dramatic  poems,  but  only  dramas  containing  a  certain 
poetical  element. 

"Japanese  poetry  is,  in  short,  confined  to  lyrics,  and 
what,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  may  be  called  epigrams. 
It  is  primarily  an  expression  of  emotion.  We  have  ama- 
tory verse  poems  of  longing  for  home  and  absent  dear 
ones,  praise  of  love  ancl  wine,  elegies  on  the  dead,  la- 
ments over  the  uncertainty  of  life.  A  chief  place  is  given 
to  the  seasons,  the  sound  of  purling  streams,  the  snow 
of  Mount  Fuji,  waves  breaking  on  the  beach,  seaweed 
drifting  to  the  shore,  the  song  of  birds,  the  hum  of  in- 
*  Aston's  "  Japanese  Literatiu-e,"  p.  29. 


^ESTHETIC    CHARACTERISTICS  187 

sects,  even  the  croaking  of  frogs,,  the  leaping  of  trout 
in  a  mountain  stream,  the  young  shoots  of  fern  in 
spring,  the  belHng  of  deer  in  autumn,  the  red  tints  of  the 
maple,  the  moon,  flowers,  rain,  wind,  mist;  these  are 
among  the  favorite  subjects  which  the  Japanese  poets 
delight  to  dwell  upon.  If  we  add  some  courtly  and  pa- 
triotic effusions,  a  vast  number  of  conceits  more  or  less 
pretty,  and  a  very  few  poems  of  a  religious  cast,  the 
enumeration  is  tolerably  complete.  But,  as  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain has  observed,  there  are  curious  omissions.  War 
songs — strange  to  say — are  almost  wholly  absent. 
Fighting  and  bloodshed  are  apparently  not  considered 
fit  themes  for  poetry."  * 

The  drama  and  the  novel  have  both  achieved  consid- 
erable development,  yet  judged  from  Occidental  stand- 
ards, they  are  comparatively  weak  and  insipid.  They,  of 
course,  conspicuously  reflect  the  characteristics  of  the 
social  order  to  which  they  belong.  Critics  call  repeated 
attention  to  the  lack  of  sublimity  in  Japanese  literature, 
and  ascribe  it  to  their  inherent  race  nature.  While  the 
lack  of  sublimity  in  Japanese  scenery  may  in  fact  ac- 
count for  the  characteristic  in  question,  still  a  more  con- 
clusive explanation  would  seem  to  be  that  in  the  older 
social  order  man,  as  such,  was  not  known.  The  hidden 
glories  of  the  soul,  its  temptations  and  struggles,  its 
defects  and  victories,  could  not  be  the  themes  of  a  litera- 
ture arising  in  a  completely  communal  social  order, 
even  though  it  possessed  individualism  of  the  Buddhistic 
type.f  These  are  the  themes  that  give  Western  litera- 
ture— poetic,  dramatic,  and  narrative — its  opportunity 
for  sustained  power  and  sublimity.  They  portray  the 
inner  life  of  the  spirit. 

The  poverty  of  poetic  form  is  another  point  of  West- 
ern criticism.  Mr.  Aston  has  shown  how  this  poverty 
is  directly  due  to  the  phonetic  characteristics  of  the 
language.  Diversities  of  both  rhyme  and  rhythm  are 
practically  excluded  from  Japanese  poetry  by  the  na- 
ture of  the  language.  And  this  in  turn  has  led  to  the 
"  preference  of  the  national  genius  for  short  poems." 
But  language  is  manifestly  the  combined  product  of 
•  *'  Japanese  Literature,"  p.  24.  \  Cf.  chapter  xxxiii. 


1 88        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ling-uistic  heredity  and  the  social  order,  and  can  in  no 
sense  be  ascribed  to  inherent  race  nature.  Thus  directly 
are  social  heredity  and  social  order  determinative  of  the 
literary  characteristics  and  aesthetic  tastes  of  a  nation. 

Even  more  manifestly  may  Japanese  architectural  de- 
velopment be  traced  to  the  social  heredity  derived  from 
China  and  India.  The  needs  of  the  developing  internal 
civilization  have  determined  its  external  manifestation. 
So  far  as  Japanese  dilTers  from  Chinese  architecture,  it 
may  be  attributed  to  Japan's  isolation,  to  the  different 
demands  of  her  social  order,  to  the  difference  of  accessi- 
ble building  materials,  and  to  the  different  social  hered- 
ity handed  down  from  prehistoric  times.  That  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  Japanese  architecture  are 
due  to  the  inherent  race  nature  cannot  for  a  moment 
be  admitted. 

We  conclude  that  the  Japanese  are  not  possessed  of  a 
unique  and  inherent  aesthetic  taste.  In  some  respects 
they  are  as  certainly  ahead  of  the  Occidental  as  they 
are  behind  him  in  other  respects.  But  this,  too,  is  a  mat- 
ter of  social  development  and  social  heredity,  rather 
than  of  inherent  race  character,  of  brain  structure.  If 
aesthetic  nature  were  a  matter  of  inherited  brain  struc- 
ture, it  would  be  impossible  to  account  for  rapid  fluctua- 
tions in  aesthetic  judgment,  for  the  great  inequality  of 
aesthetic  development  in  the  different  departments  of 
life,  or  for  the  ease  of  acquiring  the  aesthetic  develop- 
ment of  alien  races.* 

*Gustave  Le  Bon  maintains,  in  his  brilliant,  but  sophistical, 
work  on  "  The  Psychology  of  Peoples,"  that  the  "  soul  of  a  race  " 
unalterably  determines  even  its  art.  He  states  that  a  Hindu 
artist,  in  copying  an  European  model  several  times,  gradually 
eliminates  the  European  characteristics,  so  that,  "  the  second  or 
third  copy  .  .  .  will  have  become  exclusively  Hindu."  His  entire 
argument  is  of  this  nature;  I  must  confess  that  I  do  not  in  the  least 
feel  its  force.  The  reason  the  Hindu  artist  transforms  a  Western 
picture  in  copying  it  is  because  he  has  been  trained  in  Hindu  art, 
not  because  he  is  a  Hindu  pliysiologically.  If  that  same  Hindu 
artist,  taken  in  infancy  to  Europe  and  raised  as  a  European  and 
trained  in  European  art,  should  still  persist  in  replacing  Euro- 
pean by  Hindu  art  characteristics,  then  the  argument  would 
have  some  force,  and  his  contention  that  the  "soul  of  races" 
can  be  modified  only  by  intermarriage  of  races  would  seem 
more  reasonable. 


XVI 

MEMORY— IMITATION 

THE  differences  which  separate  the  Oriental  from 
the  Occidental  mind  are  infinitesimal  as  com- 
pared with  the  likenesses  which  unite  them.  This 
is  a  fact  that  needs  to  be  emphasized,  for  many  writers 
on  Japan  seem  to  ignore  it.  They  marvel  at  the  differ- 
ences. The  real  marvel  is  that  the  differences  are  so 
few  and  so  superficial.  The  Japanese  are  a  race  whose 
ancestors  were  separated  from  their  early  home  nearly 
three  thousand  years  ago ;  during  this  period  they  have 
been  absolutely  prevented  from  intermarriage  with  the 
parent  stock.  Furthermore,  that  original  stock  was  not 
the  Indo-European  race.  And  no  one  has  ventured  to 
suggest  how  long  before  the  migration  of  the  ancestors  of 
the  Japanese  to  Japan  their  ancestors  parted  from  those 
who  finally  became  the  progenitors  of  modern  Occi- 
dental peoples.  For  thousands  of  years,  certainly,  the 
Japanese  and  Anglo-Saxon  races  have  had  no  ancestry 
in  common.  Yet  so  similar  is  the  entire  structure  and 
working  of  their  minds  that  the  psychological  text- 
books of  the  Anglo-Saxon  are  adopted  and  perfectly 
understood  by  competent  psychological  students  among 
the  Japanese.  I  once  asked  a  professor  of  psychology 
in  the  Matsuyama  Normal  School  if  he  had  no  difficulty 
in  teaching  his  classes  the  psychological  system  of 
Anglo-Saxon  thinkers,  if  there  were  not  peculiarities  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  which  a  Japanese  could  not 
understand,  and  if  there  were  not  psychological  phe- 
nomena of  the  Japanese  mind  which  were  ignored  in 
Anglo-Saxon  psychological  text-books.  The  very  ques- 
tions surprised  him;  to  each  he  gave  a  negative  reply. 
The  mental  differences  that  characterize  races  so  dis- 
similar as  the  Japanese  and  the  Anglo-Saxon,  I  venture 
189 


igo        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

to  repeat,  are  insignificant  as  compared  with  their  re- 
semblances. 

Our  discussions  shall  have  reference,  not  to  those  gen- 
eral psychological  characteristics  which  all  races  have 
in  common,  but  only  to  those  which  may  seem  to  stamp 
the  Japanese  people  as  peculiar.  We  wish  to  understand 
the  distinguishing  features  of  the  Japanese  mind.  We 
wish  to  know  whether  they  are  due  to  brain  structure, 
to  inherent  race  nature,  or  whether  they  are  simply  the 
result  of  education,  of  social  heredity.  This  is  our  ever- 
recurring  question. 

First,  in  regard  to  Japanese  brain  development. 
Travelers  have  often  been  impressed  with  the  unusual 
size  of  the  Japanese  head.  It  has  sometimes  been 
thought,  however,  that  the  size  is  more  apparent  than 
real,  and  the  appearance  has  been  attributed  to  the  rela- 
tively short  limbs  of  the  people  and  to  the  unusual  pro- 
portion of  round  heads  which  one  sees  everywhere.  It 
may  also  be  due  to  the  shape  of  the  head.  But,  after  all 
has  been  said,  it  remains  true  that  the  Japanese  head,  as 
related  to  his  body,  is  unexpectedly  large. 

Prof.  Marsh  of  Yale  University  is  reported  to  have 
said  that,  on  the  basis  of  brain  size,  the  Japanese  is  the 
race  best  fitted  to  survive  in  the  struggle  for  existence, 
or  at  least  in  the  struggle  for  pre-eminence. 

Statements  have  been  widely  circulated  to  the  elTect 
that  not  only  relatively  to  the  body,  but  even  absolutelv, 
the  Japanese  possess  larger  brains  than  the  European, 
but  craniological  statistics  do  not  verify  the  assertion. 
The  matter  has  been  somewhat  discussed  in  Japanese 
magazines  of  late,  to  which,  through  the  assistance  of  a 
Japanese  friend,  I  am  indebted  for  the  following  figures. 
They  are  given  in  Japanese  measurements,  but  are.  on 
this  account,  however,  none  the  less  satisfactorv  for 
comparative  purposes. 

According  to  Dr.  Davis,  the  average  European  male 
brain  weighs  36.498  momme.  and  the  Australian.  22,413, 
while  the  Japanese,  according  to  Dr.  Taguchi,  weighs 
36,205.  Taking  the  extremes,  the  largest  English  male 
brain  weighs  38,100  momme  and  the  smallest  t,S-?,77, 
whereas  the  corresponding  figures  for  Japan  are  43^919 


MEMORY—IMITATION  191 

and  30,304,  respectively,  showing  an  astonishing  range 
between  extremes.  According  to  Dr.  E.  Baelz  of  the 
Imperial  University  of  Tokyo,  the  lower  classes  of  Japan 
have  a  larger  skull  circumference  than  either  the  middle 
or  upper  classes  (1.8414,  1.7905,  and  1.8051  feet,  respect- 
ively), and  the  Ainu  (1.8579)  exceed  the  Japanese.  From 
these  facts  it  might  almost  appear  that  brain  size  and 
civilizational  development  are  in  inverse  ratio.  Were  the 
Japanese  brain  larger,  then,  than  that  of  the  European,  it 
might  plausibly  be  argued  that  they  are  therefore  in- 
ferior in  brain  power.  This  would  be  in  accord  with 
certain  of  De  Quatrefages's  investigations.  He  has 
shown  that  negroes  born  in  America  have  smaller  brains, 
but  are  intellectually  superior  to  their  African  brothers. 
"  With  them,  therefore,  intelligence  increases,  while  the 
cranial  capacity  diminishes."  * 

Those  who  trace  racial  and  civilizational  nature  to 
brain  development  cannot  gain  much  consolation  from 
a  comparative  statistical  study  of  race  brains.  De 
Quatrefages's  conclusion  is  repeatedly  forced  home: 
"  We  must  confess  that  there  can  be  no  real  relation  be- 
tween the  dimension  of  the  cranial  capacity  and  social 
development."  f  "  The  development  of  the  intellectual 
faculties  of  man  is,  to  a  great  extent,  independent  of 
the  capacity  of  the  cranium  and  the  volume  of  the 
brain."  $ 

We  may  conclude  at  once,  then,  that  Japanese  intel- 
lectual peculiarities  are  in  no  way  due  to  the  size  of  their 
brains,  but  depend  rather  on  their  social  evolution.  Yet 
it  will  not  be  amiss  to  study  in  detail  the  various  mental 
peculiarities  of  the  race,  real  and  supposed,  and  to  note 
their  relation  to  the  social  order. 

In  becoming  acquainted  with  the  Japanese  and 
Chinese  peoples,  an  Occidental  is  much  impressed  with 
their  powers  of  memory,  and  this  especially  in  connec- 
tion with  the  written  language,  the  far-famed  "  Chinese 
Character,"  or  ideograph.  My  Chinese  dictionary  con- 
tains   over    50,000  different   characters.      The   task   of 

*"  The  Human  Species,"  p.  283. 
\Ibid.,  p.  282. 
%Ibid.,  p.  384. 


192       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

learning  them  is  appalling.  How  the  Japanese  or 
Chinese  do  it  is  to  us  a  constant  wonder.  We  assume 
at  once  their  possession  of  astonishing  memories.  We 
argue  that,  for  hundreds  of  years,  each  generation  has 
been  developing  powers  of  memory  through  eflforts  to 
conquer  this  cumbersome  contrivance  for  writing,  and 
that,  as  a  consequence  for  the  nations  using  this  system, 
there  is  now  prodigious  ability  to  remember. 

It  is  my  impression,  however,  that  w^e  greatly  overrate 
these  powers.  In  the  first  place,  few  Japanese  claim  any 
acquaintance  with  the  entire  50,000  characters;  only  the 
educated  make  any  pretense  of  knowing  more  than  a  few 
hundred,  and  a  vast  majority  even  of  learned  men  do  not 
know  more  than  10,000  characters.  Some  Japanese 
newspapers  have  undertaken  to  limit  themselves  in  the 
use  of  the  ideograph.  It  is  said  that  between  four  and 
five  thousand  characters  suffice  for  all  the  ordinary  pur- 
poses of  communication.  These  are,  without  doubt, 
fairly  well  known  to  the  educated  classes.  But  for  the 
masses,  there  is  need  that  the  pronunciation  be  placed 
beside  each  printed  character,  before  it  can  be  read. 
Furthermore,  we  must  remember  that  a  Japanese  youth 
gives  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  the  bare  memorizing 
of  these  symbols.* 

Were  European  or  American  youth  to  devote  to  the 

*The  manuscript  of  this  work  was  largely  prepared  in  1S97 
and  1898.  Since  writing  the  above  lines,  a  vigorous  discussion 
has  been  carried  on  in  the  Japanese  press  as  to  the  advantages 
and  disadvantages  of  the  present  system  of  writing.  ^  Many 
.  have  advocated  "boldly  the  entire  abandonment  of  the  Chinese 
character  and  the  exclusive  use  of  the  Roman  alphabet.  The 
difficulties  of  such  a  step  are  enormous  and  cannot  be  appreci- 
ated by  anyone  not  familiar  with  the  written  language  of  Japan. 
One  of  the  strongest  arguments  for  such  a  course,  however,  has 
been  the  obstacle  placed  by  the  Chinese  in  the  way  of  popular 
education,  due  to  the  cime  required  for  its  mastery  and  the  me- 
chanical nature  of  the  mind  it  tends  to  produce.  In  August  of 
igoo  the  Educational  Department  enacted  some  regulations  that 
have  great  significance  in  this  connection.  Perhaps  the  most 
important  is  the  requirement  that  not  more  than  one  thousand 
two  hundred  Chinese  characters  are  to  be  taught  to  the  common- 
school  children,  and  the  form  of  the  eliaracter  is  not  to  be  taught 
independently  of  the  meaning.  The  remarks  in  the  te.\t  above 
are  directed  chiefly  to  the  ancient  methods  of  education. 


MEMORY— IMITATION  193 

study  of  Chinese  the  same  number  of  hours  each  day 
for  the  same  number  of  years,  I  doubt  if  there  would  be 
any  conspicuous  difference  in  the  results.  We  should 
not  forget  also  that  some  Occidentals  manifest  astonish- 
ing facility  in  memorizing  Chinese  characters. 

In  this  connection  is  the  important  fact  that  the  social 
order  serves  to  sift  out  individuals  of  marked  mnemonic 
powers  and  bring  them  into  prominence,  while  those 
who  are  relatively  deficient  are  relegated  to  the  back- 
ground. The  educated  class  is  necessarily  composed  of 
those  who  have  good  powers  of  memory.  All  others 
fail  and  are  rejected.  We  see  and  admire  those  who 
succeed ;  of  those  who  fail  we  know  nothing  and  we  even 
forget  that  there  are  such. 

In  response  to  my  questions  Japanese  friends  have 
uniformly  assured  me  that  they  are  not  accustomed  to 
think  of  the  Japanese  as  possessed  of  better  memories 
than  the  people  of  the  West.  They  appear  surprised 
that  the  question  should  be  raised,  and  are  specially  sur- 
prised at  our  high  estimate  of  Japanese  ability  in  this 
direction. 

If,  however,  we  inquire  about  their  powers  of  memory 
in  connection  with  daily  duties  and  the  ordinary  acqui- 
sition of  knowledge  and  its  retention,  my  own  experience 
of  twelve  years,  chiefly  with  the  middle  and  lower  classes 
of  society,  has  left  the  impression  that,  while  some  learn 
easily  and  remember  well,  a  large  number  are  exceed- 
ingly slow.  On  the  whole,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that, 
although  the  Japanese  may  be  said  to  have  good  mem- 
ories, yet  it  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  they  conspicu- 
ously exceed  Occidentals  in  this  respect. 

In  comparing  the  Occidental  with  the  Oriental,  it  is  to 
be  remembered  that  there  is  not  among  Occidental 
nations  that  attention  to  bare  memorizing  which  is  so 
conspicuous  among  the  less  civilized  nations.  The 
astonishing  feats  performed  by  the  transmitters  of  an- 
cient poems  and  religious  teachings  seem  to  us  incredi- 
ble. Professor  Max  Miiller  says"  that  the  voluminous 
Vedas  have  been  handed  down  for  centuries,  unchanged, 
simply  from  mouth  to  mouth  by  the  priesthood.  Every 
progressive  race,  until  it  has  attained  a  high  develop- 


194       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

ment  of  the  art  of  writing,  has  manifested  similar 
power  of  memory.  Such  power  is  not,  however,  inherent ; 
that  is  to  say,  it  is  not  due  to  the  innate  pecuHarity  of 
brain  structure,  but  rather  to  the  nature  of  the  social 
order  which  demands  such  expenditure  of  time  and 
strength  for  the  maintenance  of  its  own  higher  life. 
Through  the  art  of  writing  Occidental  peoples  have 
found  a  cheaper  way  of  retaining  their  history  and  of 
preserving  the  products  of  their  poets  and  religious 
teachers.  Even  for  the  transactions  of  daily  life  we 
have  resorted  to  the  constant  use  of  pen  and  notebook 
and  typewriter,  by  these  devices  saving  time  and  strength 
for  other  things.  As  a  result,  our  memories  are  devel- 
oped in  directions  different  from  those  of  semi-civilized 
or  primitive  man.  The  differences  of  memory  char- 
acterizing different  races,  then,  are  for  the  most  part  due 
to  differences  in  the  social  order  and  to  the  nature  of  the 
civilization,  rather  than  to  the  intrinsic  and  inherited 
structure  of  the  brain  itself. 

Since  memory  is  the  foundation  of  all  mental  opera- 
tions, we  have  given  to  it  the  first  place  in  the  present 
discussion.  And  that  the  Japanese  have  a  fair  degree  of 
memory  argues  well  for  the  prospect  of  high  attain- 
ment in  other  directions.  With  this  in  mind,  we  naturally 
ask  whether  they  show  any  unusual  proficiency  or  defi- 
ciency in  the  acquisition  of  foreign  languages?  In 
view  of  her  protracted  separation  from  the  languages 
of  other  peoples,  should  we  not  expect  marked  deficiency 
in  this  respect?  On  the  contrary,  however,  we  find  that 
tens  of  thousands  of  Japanese  students  have  acquired  a 
fairly  good  reading  knowledge  of  English,  French,  and 
German.  Those  few  who  have  had  good  and  sufficient 
teaching,  or  who  have  been  abroad  and  lived  in  Occi- 
dental lands,  have  in  addition  secured  ready  conversa- 
tional use  of  the  various  languages.  Indeed,  some  have 
contended  that  since  the  Japanese  learn  foreign  lan- 
guages more  easily  than  foreigners  learn  Jai^anese.  they 
have  greater  linguistic  powers  than  the  foreigner.  It 
should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  in  such  a  com- 
parison, not  only  are  the  time  required  and  the  proficiency 
attained  to  be  considered,  but  also  the  inherent  diffi- 


MEMORY— IMITATION  195 

culty  of  the  language  studied  and  the  Hnguistic  helps 
provided  the  student. 

I  have  come  gradually  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Japanese  are  neither  particularly  gifted  nor  particularly 
deficient  in  powers  of  language  acquisition.  They  rank 
with  Occidental  peoples  in  this  respect. 

To  my  mind  language  afTords  one  of  the  best  possible 
proofs  of  the  general  contention  of  this  volume  that  the 
characteristics  which  distinguish  the  races  are  social 
rather  than  biological.  The  reason  why  the  languages 
of  the  different  races  dififer  is  not  because  the  brain- 
types  of  the  races  are  different,  but  only  because  of  the 
isolated  social  evolution  which  the  races  have  experi- 
enced. Had  it  been  possible  for  Japan  to  maintain 
throughout  the  ages  perfect  and  continuous  social  inter- 
course with  the  ancestors  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race, 
while  still  maintaining  biological  isolation,  i.  c,  perfect 
freedom  from  intermarriage,  there  is  no  reason  to  think 
that  two  distinct  languages  so  different  as  English  and 
Japanese  would  have  arisen.  The  fact  that  Japanese 
children  can  accurately  acquire  English,  and  that  English 
or  American  children  can  accurately  acquire  Japanese, 
proves  conclusively  that  diversities  of  language  do  not 
rest  on  brain  differences  and  brain  heredity,  but  exclu- 
sively on  social  differences  and  social  heredity. 

If  this  is  true,  then  the  argument  can  easily  be  ex- 
tended to  all  the  features  that  differentiate  the  civiliza- 
tions of  different  races ;  for  the  language  of  any  race  is, 
in  a  sense,  the  epitome  of  the  civilization  of  that  race. 
All  its  ideas,  customs,  theologies,  philosophies,  sciences, 
mythologies ;  all  its  characteristic  thoughts,  conceptions, 
ideals ;  all  its  distinguishing  social  features,  are  repre- 
sented in  its  language.  Indeed,  they  enter  into  it  as  de- 
termining factors,  and  by  means  of  it  are  transmitted 
from  age  to  age.  This  argument  is  capable  of  much 
extension  and  illustration. 

The  charge  that  the  Japanese  are  a  nation  of  imitators 
has  been  repeated  so  often  as  to  become  trite,  and  the 
words  are  usually  spoken  with  disdain.  Yet,  if  the  truth 
were  fully  told,  it  would  be  found  that,  from  many  points 
of  view,  this  quality  gives  reason  rather  for  congratu- 


196       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

lation.  Surely  that  nation  which  can  best  discriminate 
and  imitate  has  advantage  over  nations  that  are  so  fixed 
in  their  self-sufficiency  as  to  be  able  neither  to  see  that 
which  is  advantageous  nor  to  imitate  it.  In  referring  to 
the  imitative  powers  of  the  Japanese,  then,  I  do  not  speak- 
in  terms  of  reproach,  but  rather  in  those  of  commenda- 
tion. "  Monkeyism  "  is  not  the  sort  of  imitation  that 
has  transformed  primitive  Japan  into  the  Japan  of  the 
early  or  later  feudal  ages,  nor  into  the  Japan  of  the 
twentieth  centurv.  Bare  imitation,  without  thought, 
has  been  relatively  slight  in  Japan.  If  it  has  been 
known  at  times,  those  times  have  been  of  short  dura- 
tion. 

In  his  introduction  to  "The  Classic  Poetry  of  the 
Japanese  "  Professor  Chamberlain  has  so  stated  the  case 
for  the  imitative  quality  of  the  people  that  I  quote  the 
following: 

"  The  current  impression  that  the  Japanese  are  a 
nation  of  imitators  is  in  the  main  correct.  As  they  copy 
us  to-day,  so  did  they  copy  the  Chinese  and  Koreans  a 
millennium  and  a  half  ago.  Religion,  philosophy,  laws, 
administration,  written  characters,  all  arts  but  the 
very  simplest,  all  science,  or  at  least  what  then  went  by 
that  name,  everything  was  imported  from  the  neighbor- 
ing continent;  so  much  so  that  of  all  that  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  term  '  Old  Japan  '  scarce  one  trait  in  a  hun- 
dred is  really  and  properly  Japanese.  Not  only  are  their 
silk  and  laccjuer  not  theirs  by  right  of  invention,  nor 
their  painting  (all)eit  so  often  praised  by  European 
critics  for  its  originality),  nor  their  porcelain,  nor  their 
music,  but  even  the  larger  part  of  their  language  con- 
sists of  mispronounced  Chinese;  and  from  the  Chinese 
they  have  drawn  new  names  for  already  existing  places, 
and  new  titles  for  their  ancient  Gods." 

While  the  above  cannot  be  disputed  in  its  direct  state- 
ments, yet  I  can  but  feel  thai  it  makes,  on  the  whole,  a 
false  impression.  Were  these  same  tests  applied  to 
any  European  people,  what  would  be  the  result?  Of 
what  European  nation  may  it  be  said  that   its  art.  or 


MEMORY— IMITATION  197 

method  of  writing,  or  architecture,  or  science,  or  lan- 
guage even,  is  "its  own  by  right  of  invention"?  And 
when  we  stop  to  examine  the  details  of  the  ancient 
Japanese  civilization  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  so 
slavishly  copied  from  China  and  India,  we  shall  find 
that,  though  the  beginnings  were  indeed  imitated,  there 
were  also  later  developments  of  purely  Japanese  crea- 
tion.    In  some  instances  the  changes  were  vital. 

In  examining  the  practical  arts,  while  we  acknowl- 
edge that  the  beginnings  of  nearly  all  came  from  Korea 
or  China,  we  must  also  acknowledge  that  in  many  impor- 
tant respects  Japan  has  developed  along  her  own  lines. 
The  art  of  sword-making,  for  instance,  was  undoubtedly 
imported;  but  who  does  not  know  of  the  superior 
quality  and  beauty  of  Japanese  swords,  the  Damascus 
blades  of  the  East?  So  distinct  is  this  Japanese  produc- 
tion that  it  cannot  be  mistaken  for  that  of  any  other 
nation.  It  has  received  the  impress  of  the  Japanese 
social  order.  Its  very  shape  is  due  to  the  habit  of  car- 
rying the  sheath  in  the  "  obi  "  or  belt. 

If  we  study  the  home  of  the  laborer,  or  the  instruments 
in  common  use,  we  shall  find  proof  that  much  more 
than  imitation  has  been  involved. 

Were  the  Japanese  mere  imitators,  how  could  we  ex- 
plain their  architecture,  so  different  from  that  of  China 
and  Korea?  How  explain  the  multiplied  original  ways 
in  which  bamboo  and  straw  are  used? 

For  a  still  closer  view  of  the  matter,  let  us  consider 
the  imported  ethical  and  religious  codes  of  the  country. 
In  China  the  emphasis  of  Confucianism  is  laid  on  the 
duty  of  filial  piety.  In  Japan  the  primary  emphasis  is  on 
loyalty.  This  single  change  transformed  the  entire  sys- 
tem and  made  the  so-called  Confucianism  of  Japan  dis- 
tinct from  that  of  China.  In  Buddhism,  imported  from 
India,  we  find  greater  changes  than  Occidental  nations 
have  imposed  on  their  religion  imported  from  Palestine. 
Indeed,  so  distinct  has  Japanese  Buddhism  become  that 
it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  trace  its  connections  in  China 
and  India.  And  the  Buddhistic  sects  that  have  sprung 
up  in  Japan  are  more  radically  diverse  and  antagonistic 
to  each  other  and  to  primitive  Buddhism  than  the  de- 


198       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

nominations  of  Christianity  arc  to  each  other  and  to 
primitive  Qiristianity. 

In  ilkistration  is  the  most  popular  of  all  the  Buddhist 
sects  to-day,  Shinshu.  This  has  sometimes  been  called 
by  foreigners  "  Reformed  "  Buddhism ;  and  so  similar 
are  many  of  its  doctrines  to  those  of  Christianity  that 
some  have  supposed  them  to  have  been  derived  from  it, 
but  without  the  slightest  evidence.  All  its  main  doc- 
trines and  practices  were  clearly  formulated  by  its 
founder,  Shinrah,  six  hundred  years  ago.  The  regular 
doctrines  of  Buddhism  that  salvation  comes  only 
through  self-effort  and  self-victory  are  rejected,  and  sal- 
vation through  the  merits  of  another  is  taught.  "  Ta- 
riki,"  "  another's  power,"  not  "  Ji-riki,"  "  self-power,"  is 
with  them  the  orthodox  doctrine.  Priests  may  marry 
and  eat  meat,  practices  utterly  abhorrent  to  the  older 
and  more  primitive  Buddhism.  The  sacred  books  are 
printed  in  the  vernacular,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  cus- 
toms of  the  other  sects.  Women,  too,  are  given  a  very 
different  place  in  the  social  and  religious  scale  and  are 
allowed  hopes  of  attaining  salvation  that  are  denied  by 
all  the  older  sects.  "  Penance,  fasting,  prescribed  diet, 
pilgrimages,  isolation  from  society,  whether  as  hermits 
or  in  the  cloister,  and  generally  amulets  and  charms,  are 
all  tabooed  by  this  sect.  Monasteries  imposing  life  vows 
are  unknown  within  its  pale.  Family  life  takes  the  place 
of  monkish  seclusion.  Devout  prayer,  purity,  earnest- 
ness of  life,  and  trust  in  Buddha  himself  as  the  only 
worker  of  perfect  righteousness,  are  insisted  on. 
Morality  is  taught  as  more  important  than  ortho- 
doxy." *  It  is  amazing  how  far  the  Shin  sect  has  broken 
away  from  regular  Buddhistic  doctrine  and  practice. 
Who  can  say  that  no  originality  was  required  to  de- 
velop such  a  system,  so  opposed  at  vital  points  to  the 
prevalent  Buddhism  of  the  day? 

Another  sect  of  purely  Japanese  origin  deserving 
notice  is  the  "  Plokke  "  or  "  Nicheren."  Its  fountler, 
known  by  the  name  of  Nichiren,  was  a  man  of  extraordi- 
nary independence  and  religious  fervor.  Wliolly  by  his 
original  questions  and  doubts  as  to  the  prevailing  doc- 
*  Griffis'  "  Religions  of  Japan,"  p.  272. 


MEMORY— IMITATION 


■99 


trines  and  customs  of  the  then  dominant  sects,  he  was 
led  to  make  independent  examination  into  the  history 
and  meaning  of  Buddhistic  Hterature  and  to  arrive  at 
conckisions  quite  different  from  those  of  his  contempo- 
raries. Of  the  truth  and  importance  of  his  views  he  was 
so  persuaded  that  he  braved  not  only  fierce  denuncia- 
tions, but  prolonged  opposition  and  persecution.  He 
was  rejected  and  cast  out  by  his  own  people  and  sect; 
he  was  twice  banished  by  the  ruling  military  powers. 
But  he  persevered  to  the  end,  finally  winning  thousands 
of  converts  to  his  views.  The  virulence  of  the  attacks 
made  upon  him  was  due  to  the  virulence  with  which  he 
attacked  what  seemed  to  him  the  errors  and  corruption 
of  the  prevailing  sects.  Surely  his  was  no  case  of 
servile  imitation.  His  early  followers  had  also  to  en- 
dure opposition  and  severe  persecution. 

Glancing  at  the  philosophical  ideas  brought  from 
China,  we  find  here  too  a  suggestion  of  the  same  tend- 
ency toward  originality.  It  is  true  that  Dr.  Geo.  Wm. 
Knox,  in  his  valuable  monograph  on  "  A  Japanese  Phi- 
losopher," makes  the  statement  that,  "  In  acceptance  and 
rejection  alike  no  native  originality  emerges,  nothing 
beyond  a  vigorous  power  of  adoption  and  assimilation. 
No  improvements  of  the  new  philosophy  were  even  at- 
tempted. Wherein  it  was  defective  and  indistinct,  defec- 
tive and  indistinct  it  remained.  The  system  was  not 
thought  out  to  its  end  and  independently  adopted.  Po- 
lemics, ontology,  ethics,  theology,  marvels,  heroes — all 
were  enthusiastically  adopted  on  faith.  It  is  to  be  added 
that  the  new  system  was  superior  to  the  old,  and  so 
much  of  discrimination  was  shown."  *  And  somewhat 
earlier  he  likewise  asserts  that  "  There  is  not  an  original 
and  valuable  commentary  by  a  Japanese  writer.  They 
have  been  content  to  brood  over  the  imported  works  and 
to  accept  unquestioningly  politics,  ethics,  and  metaphys- 
ics." After  some  examination  of  these  native  philoso- 
phers, I  feel  that,  although  not  without  some  truth,  these 
assertions  cannot  be  strictly  maintained.  It  is  doubtless 
true  that  no  powerful  thinker  and  writer  has  appeared  in 
Japan  that  may  be  compared  to  the  two  great  philoso- 
*  P.  24. 


200       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

phers  of  China,  Shushi  and  Oyomei.  The  works  and 
the  system  of  the  former  dominated  Japan,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  governmental  authority  forbade  the  public 
teaching  or  advocacy  of  the  other.  Nevertheless,  not  a 
few  Japanese  thinkers  rejected  the  teachings  and  philoso- 
phy of  Shushi,  regardless  of  consequences.  Notable 
among  those  rejecters  was  Kaibara  Yekken,  whose  book 
"  The  Great  Doubt  "  was  not  published  until  after  his 
death.  In  it  he  rejects  in  emphatic  terms  the  philosoph- 
ical and  metaphysical  ideas  of  Shushi.  An  article*  by  Dr. 
Tetsujiro  Inouye,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the'  Im- 
perial University  in  Tokyo,  on  the  "  Development  of  Phil- 
osophical Ideas  in  Japan,"  concludes  with  these  words : 

"  From  this  short  sketch  the  reader  can  clearly  see  that 
philosophical  considerations  began  in  our  country  with 
the  study  of  Shushi  and  Oyomei.  But  many  of  our 
thinkers  did  not  long  remain  faithful  to  that  tradition; 
they  soon  formed  for  themselves  new  conceptions  of  life 
and  of  the  world,  which,  as  a  rule,  are  not  only  more 
practical,  but  also  more  advanced  than  those  of  the 
Chinese." 

An  important  reason  for  our  Western  thought,  that 
the  Japanese  have  had  no  independence  in  philosophy,  is 
our  ignorance  of  the  larger  part  of  Japanese  and  Chinese 
literature.  Oriental  speculation  was  moving  in  a  direc- 
tion so  diverse  from  that  of  the  West  that  we  are  im- 
pressed more  with  the  general  similarity  that  prevails 
throughout  it  than  with  the  evidences  of  individual 
difYerences.  Greater  knowledge  would  reveal  these  dif- 
ferences. In  our  generalized  knowledge,  we  see  the  uni- 
formity so  strongly  that  we  fail  to  discover  the  origin- 
ality. 

As  a  traveler  from  the  West,  on  reaching  some  East- 
ern land,  finds  it  difficult  at  first  to  distinguish  between  the 
faces  of  different  individuals,  his  mind  being  focused  on 
the  likeness  pervading  them  all,  so  the  Occidental  stu- 
dent of  Oriental  thought  is  impressed  with  the  remark- 
able similarity  that  pervades  the  entire  Oriental  civili- 
*  Far  East  for  January,  1S9S. 


MEMORY— IMITATION  201 

zation,  modes  of  thought,  and  philosophy,  finding  it 
difficult  to  discover  the  differences  which  distinguish 
the  various  Oriental  races.  In  like  manner,  a  beginner 
in  the  study  of  Japanese  philosophy  hardly  gives  the 
Japanese  credit  for  the  modifications  of  Chinese  philoso- 
phy which  they  have  originated. 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  remember  that,  more 
than  any  Westerner  can  realize,  the  Japanese  people 
have  been  dependent  on  governmental  initiative  from 
time  immemorial.  They  have  never  had  any  thought 
but  that  of  implicit  obedience,  and  this  characteristic  of 
the  social  order  has  produced  its  necessary  conse- 
quences in  the  present  characteristics  of  the  people.  In- 
dividual initiative  and  independence  have  been  frowned 
upon,  if  not  always  forcibly  repressed,  and  thus  the  habit 
of  imitation  has  been  stimulated.  The  people  have  been 
deliberately  trained  to  imitation  by  their  social  system. 
The  foreigner  is  amazed  at  the  sudden  transformations 
that  have  swept  the  nation.  When  the  early  contact 
with  China  opened  the  eyes  of  the  ruling  classes  to  the 
fact  that  China  had  a  system  of  government  that  was 
in  many  respects  better  than  their  own,  it  was  an  easy 
thing  to  adopt  it  and  make  it  the  basis  for  their  own 
government.  This  constituted  the  epoch-making  period 
in  Japanese  history  known  as  the  Taikwa  Reform.  It 
occurred  in  the  seventh  century,  and  consisted  of  a  cen- 
tralizing policy;  under  which,  probably  for  the  first  time 
in  Japanese  history,  the  country  was  really  unified. 
Critics  ascribe  it  to  an  imitation  of  the  Chinese  system. 
Imitation  it  doubtless  was ;  but  its  significant  feature  was 
its  imposition  by  the  few  rulers  on  the  people;  hence 
its  wide  prevalence  and  general  acceptance. 

Similarly,  in  our  own  "times,  the  Occidentalized  order 
now  dominant  in  Japan  was  adopted,  not  by  the  people, 
but  by  the  rulers,  and  imposed  by  them  on  the  people; 
these  had  no  idea  of  resisting  the  new  order,  but  accepted 
it  loyally  as  the  decision  of  their  Emperor,  and  this 
spirit  of  unquestioning  obedience  to  the  powers  that  be 
is,  I  am  persuaded,  one  of  the  causes  of  the  prevalent 
opinion  respecting  Japanese  imitativeness  as  well  as  of 
the  fact  itself. 


202        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

The  reputation  for  imitativeness,  together  with  the 
quahty  itself,  is  due  in  no  small  degree,  therefore,  to  the 
long-continued  dominance  of  the  feudal  order  of  society. 
In  a  land  where  the  dependence  of  the  inferior  on  the  su- 
perior is  absolute,  the  wife  on  the  husband,  the  children 
on  the  parents,  the  followers  on  their  lord,  the  will  of 
the  superior  being  ever  supreme,  individual  initiative 
must  be  rare,  and  the  quality  of  imitation  must  be  power- 
fully stimulated. 


XVII 
ORIGINALITY— INVENTIVENESS 

ORIGINALITY  is  the  obverse  side  of  imitation. 
In  combating  the  notion  that  Japan  is  a  nation 
of  unreflective  imitators,  I  have  given  numerous 
examples  of  originaHty.  Further  extensive  illustration 
of  this  characteristic  is,  accordingly,  unnecessary.  One 
other  may  be  cited,  however. 

The  excellence  of  Japanese  art  is  admitted  by  all. 
Japanese  temples  and  palaces  are  adorned  with  mural 
paintings  and  pieces  of  sculpture  that  command  the  ad- 
miration of  Occidental  experts.  The  only  question  is  as 
to  their  authors.  Are  these,  properly  speaking,  Japa- 
nese works  of  art — or  Korean  or  Chinese?  That  Japan 
received  her  artistic  stimulus,  and  much  of  her  artistic 
ideas  and  technique,  from  China  is  beyond  dispute.  But 
did  she  develop  nothing  new  and  independent  ?  This  is  a 
question  of  fact.  Japanese  art,  though  Oriental,  has  a 
distinctive  quality.  A  magnificent  work  entitled  "  So- 
licited Relics  of  Japanese  Art"  is  issuing  from  the  press, 
in  which  there  is  a  large  number  of  chromo-xylographic 
and  collotype  reproductions  of  the  best  specimens  of  an- 
cient Japanese  art.  Reviewing  this  work,  the  Japan 
Mail  remarks : 

"  But  why  should  the  only  great  sculptors  that  China 
or  Korea  ever  produced  have  come  to  Japan  and 
bequeathed  to  this  country  the  unique  results  of 
their  genius?  That  is  the  question  we  have  to  answer 
before  we  accept  the  doctrine  that  the  noblest  master- 
pieces of  ancient  Japan  were  from  foreign  lands.  When 
anything  comparable  is  found  in  China  or  Korea,  there 
will  be  less  difficulty  in  applying  this  doctrine  of  over-sea- 
influence  to  the  genius  that  enriched  the  temples  of 
antique  Japan."  * 

*  January  20,  1900. 
203 


204       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

Under  the  early  influence  of  Buddhism  (900-1200  A. 
D.)  Japan  fairly  bloomed.  Those  were  the  days  of  her 
glory  in  architecture,  literature,  and  art.  But  a  blight 
fell  upon  her  from  which  she  is  only  now  recovering. 
The  causes  of  this  blight  will  receive  attention  in  a  sub- 
sequent chapter.  Let  us  note  here  only  one  aspect  of 
it,  namely,  official  repression  of  originality. 

Townsend  Harris,  in  his  journal,  remarks  on  the  way 
in  which  the  Japanese  government  has  interfered  with 
the  originality  of  the  people.  "  The  genius  of  their  gov- 
ernment seems  to  forbid  any  exercise  of  ingenuity  in 
producing  articles  for  the  gratification  of  wealth  and 
luxury.  Sumptuary  laws  rigidly  enforce  the  forms, 
colors,  material,  and  time  of  changing  the  dress  of  all. 
As  to  luxury  of  furniture,  the  thing  is  unknown  in 
Japan.  .  .  It  would  be  an  endless  task  to  attempt 
to  put  down  all  the  acts  of  a  Japanese  that  are  regulated 
by  authority." 

The  Tokugawa  rule  forbade  the  building  of  large 
ships;  so  that,  by  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  art  of  ship-building  was  far  behind  what  it  had  been 
two  centuries  earlier.  Government  authority  exter- 
minated Christianity  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  and  freedom  of  religious  belief  was  forbidden. 
The  same  power  that  put  the  ban  on  Christianity  for- 
bade the  spread  of  certain  condemned  systems  of  Con- 
fucianism. Even  in  the  study  of  Chinese  literature  and 
philosophy,  tlierefore,  such  originality  as  the  classic 
models  stimulated  was  discouraged  by  the  all-powerful 
Tokugawa  government.  The  avowed  aim  and  end  of  the 
ruling  powers  of  Japan  was  to  keep  the  nation  in  its 
status  quo.  Originality  was  heresy  and  treason;  prog- 
ress was  impiety.  The  teaching  of  Confucius  likewise 
lent  its  support  to  this  policy.  To  do  exactly  as  the 
fathers  did  is  to  honor  them ;  to  do,  or  even  to  think, 
otherwise  is  to  dishonor  them.  There  have  not  been 
wanting  men  of  originality  and  independence  in  both 
China  and  Japan ;  but  they  were  not  great  enough  to 
break  over,  or  break  down,  the  incrusted  system  in 
which  they  lived — the  system  of  blind  devotion  to  the 
past.    This  system,  that  deliberately  opposed  all  inven- 


ORIGINALITY -INVENTIVENESS         205 

tion  and  originality,  has  been  the  great  incubus  to  na- 
tional progress,  in  that  it  has  rejected  and  repressed  every 
tendency  to  variation.  What  results  might  not  the 
country  have  secured,  had  Christianity  been  allowed  to 
do  its  work  in  stimulating  individual  development  and 
in  creating  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  towards 
God  and  man ! 

A  curious  anomaly  still  remains  in  Japan  on  the  sub- 
ject of  liberty  in  study  and  belief.  Though  perfect 
liberty  is  the  rule,  one  topic  is  even  yet  under  of- 
ficial embargo.  No  one  may  express  public  dissent  from 
the  authorized  version  of  primitive  Japanese  history.  A 
few  years  ago  a  professor  in  the  Imperial  University 
made  an  attempt  to  interpret  ancient  Japanese  myths. 
His  constructions  were  supposed  to  threaten  the  divine 
descent  of  the  Imperial  line,  and  he  was  summarily 
dismissed. 

Dr.  E.  Inouye,  Professor  of  Buddhist  Philosophy  in 
the  Imperial  University,  addressing  a  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion of  Sendai,  delivered  a  conservative,  indirectly  anti- 
foreign  speech.  He  insisted,  as  reported  by  a  local 
English  correspondent,  that  the  Japanese  people  "  were 
descended  from  the  gods.  In  all  other  countries  the 
sovereign  or  Emperor  was  derived  from  the  people,  but 
here  the  people  had  the  honor  of  being  derived  from  the 
Emperor.  Other  countries  had  filial  piety  and  loyalty, 
but  no  such  filial  piety  and  loyalty  as  exist  in  Japan. 
The  moral  attainments  of  the  people  were  altogether 
unique.  He  informed  his  audience  that  though  they 
might  adopt  foreign  ways  of  doing  things,  their  minds 
needed  no  renovating;  they  were  good  enough  as  they 
were."  * 

As  a  result  of  this  position,  scholarship  and  credulity 
are  curiously  combined  in  modern  historical  production. 
Implicit  confidence  seems  to  be  placed  in  the  myths  of 
the  primitive  era.  Tales  of  the  gods  are  cited  as  histor- 
ical events  whose  date,  even,  can  be  fixed  with  some 
degree  of  accuracy.  Although  writing  was  unknown  in 
Japan  until  early  in  the  Christian  era,  the  chronology  of 
the  previous  six  or  eight  hundred  years  is  accepted  on 

*  Japan  Mail,  November  12,  1898. 


2o6       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  authority  of  a  single  statement  in  the  Kojiki,  written 
712  years  a.  d.  This  statement  was  reproduced  from 
the  memory  of  a  single  man,  who  remembered  miracu- 
lously the  contents  of  a  book  written  shortly  before,  but 
accidentally  destroyed  by  fire.  In  the  authoritative  his- 
tory of  Japan,  prepared  and  translated  into  English  at 
the  command  of  the  government  for  the  Columbian  Ex- 
position, we  find  such  statements  as  these: 

"  From  the  time  that  Amaterasu-Omikami  made  Xi- 
nigi-no-mikoto  to  descend  from  the  heavens  and  sub- 
ject to  his  administrative  sway  Okini-nushi-no-mikoto 
and  other  offspring  of  the  deities  in  the  land,  descend- 
ants of  the  divine  beings  have  sat  upon  the  throne,  gen- 
eration after  generation  in  succession."  *  "  Descended 
in  a  direct  line  from  the  heavenly  deities,  the  Em- 
peror has  stood  unshaken  in  his  high  place  through 
all  generations,  his  prestige  and  dignity  immutable 
from  time  immemorial  and  independent  of  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  world  about  him."  f  "  Never  has 
there  been  found  a  single  subject  of  the  realm  who 
sought  to  impair  the  Imperial  prestige."  $  It  is  true 
that  in  a  single  passage  the  traditions  of  the  "  age  of  the 
Deities"  are  described  as  "strange  and  incredible  le- 
gends," but  it  is  added  that,  how^ever  singular  they  arc, 
in  order  to  understand  the  history  of  the  Empire's  begin- 
nings, they  must  be  studied.  Then  follows,  without  a 
word  of  criticism  or  dissent,  the  account  of  the  doings  of 
the  heavenly  deities,  in  creating  Japan  and  its  people,  as 
well  as  the  myriads  of  gods.  There  is  no  break  between 
the  age  of  the  gods  and  the  history  of  men.  The  first  in- 
ventions and  discoveries,  such  as  those  of  fire,  of  min- 
ing, and  of  weaving  are  ascribed  to  Amate  rasu- 
Omikami  (the  Sun  Goddess).  According  to  these  tradi- 
tions and  the  modern  histories  built  upon  them,  the 
Japanese  race  came  into  existence  wholly  independently 
of  all  other  races  of  men.  Such  is  the  authoritative 
teaching  in  the  schools  to-day. 

Occidental  scholars  do  not  accept  these  statements  or 
dates.  That  the  Japanese  will  evince  historical  and  crit- 
ical ability  in  the  study  of  their  own  early  history,  as 

*P.  17.  fP.  18.  I  P.  18. 


ORIGINALITY— INVENTIVENESS         207 

soon  as  the  social  order  will  allow  it,  can  hardly  be  doubt- 
ed. Those  few  who  even  now  entertain  advanced  ideas  do 
not  dare  to  avow  them.  And  this  fact  throws  an  interest- 
ing light  on  the  way  in  which  the  social  order,  or  a  des- 
potic government,  may  thwart  for  a  time  the  natural 
course  of  development.  The  present  apparent  credulity 
of  Japanese  historical  scholarship  is  due  neither  to  race 
character  nor  to  superstitions  lodged  in  the  inherited 
race  brain,  but  simply  to  the  social  system,  which,  as  yet, 
demands  the  inviolabiUty  of  the  Imperial  line. 

Now  that  the  Japanese  have  been  so  largely  relieved 
from  the  incubus  of  the  older  social  order,  the  question 
rises  whether  they  are  showing  powers  of  originality. 
The  answer  is  not  doubtful,  for  they  have  already 
made  several  important  discoveries  and  inventions.  The 
Murata  rifle,  with  which  the  army  is  equipped,  is  the  in- 
vention of  a  Japanese.  In  1897  Colonel  Arisaka  in- 
vented several  improvements  in  this  same  rifle,  increas- 
ing the  velocity  and  accuracy,  and  lessening  the  weight. 
Still  more  recently  he  has  invented  a  rapid-fire  field- 
piece  to  superintend  whose  manufacture  he  has  been 
sent  to  Europe.  Mr.  Shimose  has  invented  a  smokeless 
powder,  which  the  government  is  manufacturing  for  its 
own  use.  Not  infrequently  there  appear  in  the  papers 
notices  of  new  inventions.  I  have  recently  noted  the 
invention  of  important  improvements  in  the  hand  loom 
universally  used  in  Japan,  also  a  "  smoke-consumer " 
which  not  only  abolishes  the  smoke,  but  reduces  the 
amount  of  coal  used  and  consequently  the  expense. 
These  are  but  a  few  of  the  ever-increasing  number  of 
Japanese  inventions. 

In  the  field  of  original  scientific  research  is  the  famous 
bacteriologist,  Dr.  Kitazato.  Less  widely  known  per- 
haps, but  none  the  less  truly  original  explorers  in  the 
field  of  science,  are  Messrs.  Hirase  and  Ikeno,  whose  dis- 
coveries of  spermatozoids  in  Ginko  and  Cycas  have  no 
little  value  for  botanists,  especially  in  the  development 
of  the  theory  of  certain  forms  of  fertilization.  These  in- 
stances show  that  the  faculty  of  original  thought  is  not 
entirely  lacking  among  the  Japanese.  Under  favorable 
conditions,  such  as  now  prevail,  there  is  good  reason  for 


2o8       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

holding  that  the  Japanese  will  take  their  place  among  the 
peoples  of  the  world,  not  only  as  skillful  imitators  and 
adapters,  but  also  as  original  contributors  to  the  prog- 
ress of  civilization  and  of  science. 

Originality  may  be  shown  in  imitation  as  well  as  in 
production,  and  this  type  of  originality  the  Japanese 
have  displayed  in  a  marked  way.  They  have  copied  the 
instituti(jns  of  no  single  country.  It  might  even  be  dif- 
ficult to  say  which  Western  land  has  had  the  greatest  in- 
fluence in  molding  the  new  social  order  of  Japan.  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  it  is  the  English  language  which 
has  been  most  in  favor  during  the  past  thirty  years,  it 
might  be  assumed  that  England  and  America  are  the 
favored  models.  But  no  such  hasty  conclusion  can  be 
drawn.  The  Japanese  have  certainly  taken  ideas  and 
teachers  from  many  different  sources;  and  they  have 
changed  them  frequently,  but  not  thoughtlessly.  A 
writer  in  The  Far  East  brings  this  points  out  clearly : 

"  Wliile  Japan  remained  secluded  from  other  coun- 
tries, she  had  no  necessity  for  and  scarcely  any  war  ves- 
sels, but  after  the  country  was  opened  to  the  free  inter- 
course of  foreign  powers — immediately  she  felt  the 
urgent  necessity  of  naval  defense  and  employed  a  Dutch 
officer  to  construct  her  navy.  In  1871  the  Japanese 
government  employed  a  number  of  English  officers,  and 
almost  wholly  reconstructed  her  navy  according  to  the 
English  system.  Rut  in  the  matter  of  naval  education 
our  rulers'  found  the  English  system  altogether  unsatis- 
factory, and  adopted  the  American  system  for  the  model 
of  our  naval  academy.  So,  in  discipline,  our  naval  of- 
ficers found  the  German  principle  much  superior  to  the 
English,  and  adopted  that  in  point  of  discipline.  Thus 
the  Japanese  navy  is  not  wholly  after  the  English  sys- 
tem, or  the  American,  or  the  French,  or  the  German 
system.  But  it  has  been  so  constructed  as  to  inchulc 
the  best  portions  of  all  the  different  systems.  In  the 
case  of  the  army,  we  had  a  system  of  our  own  before  we 
began  to  utilize  gunpowder  and  foreign  methods  of  dis- 
cipline. Shortly  before  the  present  era  we  reorganized 
our  army  by  adopting  ihe  Dutch  system,  then  the  Eng- 


ORIGINALITY— INVENTIVENESS        209 

lish,  then  the  French,  and  after  the  Franco-Prussian 
war,  made  an  improvement  by  adopting  the  German  sys- 
tem. But  on  every  occasion  of  reorganization  we  re- 
tained the  most  advantageous  parts  of  the  old  systems 
and  harmonized  them  with  the  new  one.  The  result 
has  been  the  creation  of  an  entirely  new  system,  different 
from  any  of  those  models  we  have  adopted.  So  in  the 
case  of  our  civil  code,  we  consulted  most  carefully  the 
laws  of  many  civilized  nations,  and  gathered  the  cream 
of  all  the  different  codes  before  we  formulated  our  own 
suited  to  the  customs  of  our  people.  In  the  revision  of 
our  monetary  system,  our  government  appointed  a 
number  of  prominent  economists  to  investigate  the 
characteristics  of  foreign  systems,  as  to  their  merits  and 
faults,  and  also  the  different  circumstances  under  which 
various  systems  present  their  strength  and  weakness. 
The  investigation  lasted  more  than  two  years,  which 
finally  culminated  in  our  adoption  of  the  gold  in  the 
place  of  the  old  silver  standard." 

This  quotation  gives  an  idea  of  the  selective  method 
that  has  been  followed.  There  has  been  no  slavish  or 
unconscious  imitation.  On  the  contrary,  there  has  been 
a  constant  conscious  effort  to  follow  the  best  model  that 
the  civilized  world  afforded.  Of  course,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  in  fact  they  have  always  chosen  the 
best;  but  that  is  a  different  matter.  The  Japanese  think 
they  have;  and  what  foreigner  can  say  that,  under  the 
circumstances  and  in  view  of  the  conditions  of  the  peo- 
ple, they  have  not?  One  point  is  clear,  that  on  the 
whole  the  nation  has  made  great  progress  in  recent  dec- 
ades, and  that  the  conduct  of  the  government  cannot 
fail  to  command  the  admiration  of  every  impartial  stu- 
dent of  Oriental  lands.  This  is  far  from  saying  that  all 
is  perfection.  Even  the  Japanese  make  no  such  claim. 
Nor  is  this  equivalent  to  an  assertion  of  Japan's  equal- 
ity with  the  leading  lands  of  the  West,  although  many 
Japanese  are  ready  to  assert  this.  But  I  merely  say  that 
the  leaders  of  New  Japan  have  revealed  a  high  order  of 
judicious  originality  in  their  imitation  of  foreign 
ngjtions. 


XVIII 
INDIRECTNESS—"  NOMINALITY  " 

THE  Japanese  have  two  words  in  frequent  use 
which  aptly  describe  certain  striking  aspects  of 
their  civiHzation.  They  are  "  tomawashi  ni," 
"yumei-mujitsu,"  the  first  translated  literally  signifying 
"  roundabout  "  or  "  indirect,"  the  second  meaning  "  hav- 
ing the  name,  but  not  the  reality."  Botli  these  aspects 
of  Japanese  character  are  forced  on  the  attention  of  any 
who  live  long  in  Japan. 

Some  years  ago  I  had  a  cow  that  I  wished  to  sell. 
Being  an  American,  my  natural  impulse  was  to  ask  a 
dairyman  directly  if  he  did  not  wish  to  buy;  but  that 
would  not  be  the  most  Japanese  method.  I  accordingly 
resorted  to  the  help  of  a  "go-between."  This  individual, 
who  has  a  regular  name  in  Japanese,  "nakadachi,"  is  in- 
dispensable for  many  purposes.  When  land  was  being 
bought  for  missionary  residences  in  Kumamoto,  there 
were  at  times  three  or  even  four  agents  acting  between 
the  purchaser  and  the  seller  and  each  received  his  "orei," 
"  honorable  politeness,"  or,  in  plain  English,  commission. 
In  the  purchase  of  two  or  three  acres  of  land,  dealings 
were  carried  on  with  some  fifteen  or  more  separate  land- 
owners. Three  dififerent  go-betweens  dealt  directly  with 
the  purchaser,  and  each  of  these  had  his  go-between,  and 
in  some  cases  these  latter  had  theirs,  before  the  land- 
owner was  reached.  A  domestic  desiring  to  leave  my 
employ  conferred  with  a  go-between,  who  conferred  with 
his  go-between,  who  conferred  with  me!  In  every  im- 
portant consultation  a  go-between  seems  essential  in 
Japan.  That  vexatious  delays  and  misunderstandings 
are  frequent  may  be  assumed. 

The  system,  however,  has  its  advantages.  In  case  of 
disagreeable  matters  the  go-between  can  say  the  dis- 

2IO 


INDIRECTNESS-"  NOMINALITY  "       211 

agreeable  things  in  the  third  person,  reducing  the  un- 
pleasant utterances  to  a  minimum. 

I  recall  the  case  of  two  evangelists  in  the  employ  of 
the  Kumamoto  station.  Each  secured  the  other  to  act 
as  go-between  in  presenting  his  own  difficulties  to  me. 
To  an  American  the  natural  course  would  have  been  for 
each  man  to  state  his  own  grievances  and  desires,  and 
secure  an  immediate  settlement. 

The  characteristic  of  "  roundaboutness  "  is  not,  how- 
ever, confined  to  Japanese  methods  of  action,  but  also 
characterizes  their  methods  of  speech.  In  later  chap- 
ters on  the  alleged  Japanese  impersonality  we  shall  con- 
sider the  remarkable  deficiency  of  personal  pronouns  in 
the  language,  and  the  wide  use  of  "  honorifics."  This 
substitution  of  the  personal  pronouns  by  honorifics 
makes  possible  an  indefiniteness  of  speech  that  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult  for  an  Anglo-Saxon  to  appreciate.  Fancy 
the  amount  of  implication  in  the  statement,  "  Ikenai 
koto-wo  shimashita"  which,  strictly  translated,  means 
"  Can't  go  thing  have  done."  Who  has  done?  you?  or 
he?  or  I?  This  can  only  be  inferred,  for  it  is  not  stated. 
If  a  speaker  wishes  to  make  his  personal  allusion  blind, 
he  can  always  do  so  with  the  greatest  ease  and  without 
the  slightest  degree  of  grammatical  incorrectness. 
"  Caught  cold,"  "  better  ask,"  "  honorably  sorry,"  "  feel 
hungry,"  and  all  the  common  sentences  of  daily  life  are 
entirely  free  from  that  personal  definiteness  which  an 
Occidental  language  necessitates.  We  shall  see  later 
that  the  absence  of  the  personal  element  from  the  word- 
ing of  the  sentence  does  not  imply,  or  prove,  its  absence 
from  the  thought  of  either  the  speaker  or  hearer.  The 
Japanese  language  abounds  in  roundabout  methods  of 
expression.  This  is  specially  true  in  phrases  of  courtesy. 
Instead  of  saying,  "I  am  glad  to  see  you,"  the  Japanese 
say,  "Well,  honorably  have  come";  instead  of,  "I  am 
sorry  to  have  troubled  you,"  they  say,  "  Honorable  hin- 
drance have  done  " ;  instead  of  "  Thank  you,"  the  correct 
expression  is,  "  It  is  difficult." 

In  a  conversation  once  with  a  leading  educator,  I  was 
maintaining  that  a  wide  study  of  English  was  not  need- 
ful for  the  Japanese  youth;  that  the  majority  of  the  boys 


212       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

would  never  learn  enough  English  to  make  it  of  prac- 
tical use  to  them  in  after-life,  and  that  it  would  be  wiser 
for  them  to  spend  the  same  amount  of  time  on  more 
immediately  practical  subjects.  Tlie  reply  was  that  the 
boys  needed  to  have  the  drill  in  English  in  order  to  gain 
clear  methods  of  thought:  that  the  sharp  distinctness  of 
the  English  sentence,  with  its  personal  pronouns  and 
tense  and  number,  affords  a  mental  drill  which  the  Japa- 
nese can  get  in  no  other  way;  and  that  even  if  the  boys 
should  never  make  the  slightest  after-use  of  English  in 
reading  or  conversation,  the  advantage  gained  was  well 
worth  the  time  expended.  I  have  since  noticed  that 
those  men  who  have  spent  some  time  in  the  study  of  a 
foreign  language  speak  very  much  more  clearly  in 
Japanese  than  those  who  have  not  had  this  training.  In 
the  former  case,  the  enunciation  is  apt  to  be  more  dis- 
tinct, and  the  sentences  rounded  into  more  definite  periods. 
The  conversation  of  the  average  Japanese  tends  to 
ramble  on  in  a  never-ending  sentence.  But  a  marked 
change  has  come  over  vast  numbers  of  the  people  dur- 
ing the  last  three  decades.  The  roundaboutness  of  to- 
day is  as  nothing  to  that  which  existed  under  the  old 
order  of  society.  For  the  new  order  rests  on  radically 
different  ideas;  directness  of  speech  and  not  its  ojiposite 
is  being  cultivated,  and  in  absolute  contrast  to  the 
methods  of  the  feudal  era,  directness  of  governmental 
procedure  is  well-nigh  universal  to-day.  In  trade,  too, 
there  has  come  a  straightforwardness  that  is  promising, 
though  not  yet  triumphant.  It  is  safe  to  assume  that  in 
all  respectable  stores  the  normal  price  is  charged;  for 
the  custom  of  fixed  prices  has  been  widely  adopted.  If 
individuals  are  known  to  have  the  "  beating  down " 
habit,  special  prices  are  added  for  their  sakes. 

A  personal  experience  illustrates  the  point.  My  wife 
and  I  had  priced  several  lamps,  had  made  note  of  the 
most  satisfactory,  and  had  gone  home  without  buying. 
The  next  day  a  domestic  was  sent  to  secure  the  one 
which  pleased  us  best.  He  was  charged  more  than  we 
had  been,  and  in  surprise  mentioned  the  sum  which  we 
had  authorized  him  to  pay.  The  shopkeeper  explained 
by  saying  that  he  always  told  us  the  true  i)rice  in  the 


INDIRECTNESS— "NOMINALITY"       213 

beginning,  because  we  never  tried  to  beat  him  down.  In 
truth,  modern  industrial  conditions  have  pretty  well  ban- 
ished the  old-time  custom  of  haggling.  A  premium  is 
set  on  straightforwardness  in  business  unknown  to  the 
old  social  order. 

Roundaboutness  is,  however,  closely  connected  with 
"  yumei-mujitsu,"  the  other  characteristic  mentioned  at 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter.  This,  for  the  sake  of  sim- 
plicity, I  venture  to  call  "  nominality."  Japanese  his- 
tory is  a  prolonged  illustration  of  this  characteristic. 
For  over  a  thousand  years  "  yumei-mujitsu  "  has  been 
a  leading  feature  in  governmental  life.  Although  the 
Emperor  has  ostensibly  been  seated  on  the  throne, 
clothed  with  absolute  power,  still  he  has  often  reigned 
only  in  name.*  Even  so  early  as  130  A.  d.,  the  two 
families  of  Oomi  and  Omuraji  began  to  exercise  des- 
potic authority  in  the  central  government,  and  the  feudal 
system,  as  thus  early  established,  continued  with  but  few 
breaks  to  the  middle  of  the  present  century.  There  were 
also  the  great  families  which  could  alone  furnish  wives 
to  the  Imperial  line.  These  early  took  possession  of  the 
person  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  fathers  of  the  wives 
often  exercised  Imperial  power.  The  country  was  fre- 
quently and  long  disturbed  by  intense  civil  wars  between 
these  rival  families.  In  turn  the  Fujiwaras,  the  Mina- 
motos,  and  the  Tairas  held  the  leading  place  in  the  con- 
trol of  the  Emperor;  they  determined  the  succession  and 
secured  frequent  abdication  in  favor  of  their  infant  sons, 
but  within  these  families,  in  turn,  there  appeared 
the  influence  of  the  "  yumei-mujitsu "  characteristic. 
Lesser  men,  the  retainers  of  these  families,  manipulated 
the  family  leaders,  who  were  often  merely  figureheads 
of  the  contending  families  and  clans.  Emperors  were 
made  and  unmade  at  the  will  of  these  men  behind  the 
scenes,  most  of  whom  are  quite  unknown  to  fame.  The 
creation  of  infant  Emperors,  allowed  to  bear  the  Im- 
perial name  in  their  infancy  and  youth,  but  compelled  to 
abdicate   on  reaching  manhood,  was  a  common  device 

*"  History  of  the  Empire  of  Japan,"  compiled  and  translated 
for  the  Imperial  Japanese  Commission  of  the  World's  Columbian 
Exposition. 


214       EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

for  maintaining  nominal  Imperialism  with  actual  im- 
potence. 

When  military  clans  began  to  monopolize  Imperial 
power,  the  people  distinctly  recognized  the  nature  of 
their  methods  and  gave  it  the  name  of  "  Bakufu "  or 
"  curtain  government,"  a  roundabout  expression  for 
military  government.  There  has  been  a  succession  of 
these  "  curtain  governments,"  the  last  and  most  success- 
ful being  that  of  the  Tokugawa,  whose  fall  in  1867-68 
brought  the  entire  system  to  an  end  and  placed  the  true 
Emperor  on  the  throne. 

But  this  "  yumei-mujitsu  "  characteristic  of  Japanese 
life  has  been  by  no  means  limited  to  the  national  gov- 
ernment. Every  daimyate  was  more  or  less  blighted 
by  it ;  the  daimyo,  or  "  Great  Name,"  was  in  too  many 
cases  but  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  his  "  kerai,"  or 
family  retainers.  These  men,  who  were  entirely  out  of 
sight,  were,  in  very  many  cases,  the  real  holders  of  the 
power  which  was  supposed  to  be  exercised  by  the 
daimyo.  The  lord  was  often  a  "  great  name "  and 
nothing  more.  That  this  state  of  affairs  was  always  at- 
tended with  evil  results  is  by  no  means  the  contention 
of  these  pages.  Not  infrequently  the  people  were  saved 
by  it  from  the  incompetence  and  ignorance  and  selfish- 
ness of  hereditary  rulers.  Indeed,  this  system  of 
"  yumei-mujitsu  "  government  was  one  of  the  devices 
whereby  the  inherent  evils  of  hereditary  rulers  were 
more  or  less  obviated.  It  may  be  questioned,  however, 
whether  the  device  did  not  in  the  long  run  cost  more 
than  it  gained.  Did  it  not  serve  to  maintain,  if  not  actu- 
ally to  produce,  a  system  of  dissimulation  and  deception 
which  could  but  injure  the  national  character?  It  cer- 
tainly could  not  stimulate  the  straightforward  frankness 
and  outspoken  directness  and  honesty  so  essential  to  the 
well-being  of  the  human  race. 

Although  "  yumei-mujitsu  "  government  is  now  prac- 
tically extinct  in  Japan,  yet  in  the  social  structure  it 
still  survives. 

The  Japanese  family  is  a  maze  of  "  nominality."  Full- 
grown  young  men  and  women  are  adopted  as  sons  and 
dauirhters,  in  order  to  maintain  the  famih-  line  anil  name. 


INDIRECTNESS— "NOMINALITY"        215 

A  son  is  not  a  legal  son  unless  he  is  so  registered,  while 
an  illegitimate  child  is  recognized  as  a  true  son  if  so 
registered.  A  man  may  be  the  legal  son  of  his  grand- 
mother, or  of  his  sister,  if  so  registered.  Although  a 
family  may  have  no  children,  it  does  not  die  out  unless 
there  has  been  a  failure  to  adopt  a  son  or  daughter, 
and  an  extinct  family  may  be  revived  by  the  legal 
appointment  of  someone  to  take  the  family  name  and 
worship  at  the  family  shrine.  The  family  pedigree, 
therefore,  does  not  describe  the  actual  ancestry,  but  only 
the  nominal,  the  fictitious.  There  is  no  deception  in  this. 
It  is  a  well-recognized  custom  of  Old  Japan.  Its  origin, 
moreover,  is  not  difficult  to  explain.  Nor  is  this  kind  of 
family  peculiar  to  Japan.  It  is  none  the  less  a  capital 
illustration  of  the  "  yumei-mujitsu  "  characteristic  per- 
meating the  feudal  civilization,  and  still  exerting  a 
powerful  influence.  Even  Christians  are  not  free  from 
"  nominalism,"  as  we  have  frequently  found  in  our  mis- 
sionary work. 

A  case  in  mind  is  of  an  evangelist  employed  by  our 
mission  station.  He  was  to  receive  a  definite  propor- 
tion of  his  salary  from  the  church  for  which  he  worked 
and  the  rest  from  the  station.  On  inquiry  I  learned  that 
he  was  receiving  only  that  provided  by  the  station,  and 
on  questioning  him  further  he  said  that  probably  the 
sum  promised  by  the  church  was  being  kept  as  his 
monthly  contribution  to  the  expenses  of  the  church! 
Instances  of  this  kind  are  not  infrequent.  While  in 
Kyushu  I  more  than  once  discovered  that  a  body  of 
Christians,  whose  evangelists  we  were  helping  to  sup- 
port proportionately,  were  actually  raising  not  a  cent  of 
their  proportion.  On  inquiry,  I  would  be  told  that  the 
evangelists  themselves  contributed  out  of  their  salary 
the  sums  needed,  and  that,  therefore,  the  Christians  did 
not  need  to  raise  it. 

The  mission,  at  one  time,  adopted  the  plan  of  throw- 
ing upon  the  local  churches  the  responsibility  of  decid- 
ing as  to  the  fitness  of  young  men  for  mission  aid  in 
securing  a  theological  education.  It  was  agreed  by  rep- 
resentatives of  the  churches  and  the  mission  that  each 
candidate  should  secure  the  approval  of  the  deacons  of 


2i6       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  church  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  that  the 
church  should  pay  a  certain  proportion  of  the  candidate's 
school  expenses.  It  was  thought  that  by  this  method 
the  leading  Christians  of  the  young  man's  acquaintance 
would  become  his  sponsors,  and  that  they  would  be  un- 
willing to  take  this  responsibility  except  for  men  in 
whom  they  had  personal  confidence,  and  for  whom  they 
would  be  willing  to  make  personal  contributions.  In 
course  of  time  the  mission  discovered  that  the  plan  was 
not  working  as  expected.  The  young  men  could  secure 
the  approval  of  the  deacons  of  their  church  without  any 
difficulty;  and  as  for  the  financial  aid  from  the  church, 
that  could  be  very  easily  arranged  for  by  the  student's 
making  a  monthly  contribution  to  the  church  of  the  sum 
which  the  church  should  contribute  toward  his  expenses. 
Although  this  method  seems  to  the  average  Occidental 
decidedly  deceptive,  it  seemed  to  the  Japanese  perfectly 
proper.  The  arrangement,  it  is  needless  to  state,  was 
not  long  continued.  I  am  persuaded  that  the  correct 
explanation  of  these  cases  is  "  yumei-mujitsu." 

Not  long  since  express  trains  were  put  on  between 
Kobe  and  Tokyo.  One  morning  at  Osaka  I  planned  to 
take  the  early  express  to  Kyoto,  distant  about  thirty 
miles.  These  are  the  second  and  third  cities  of  Japan, 
and  the  travel  between  them  is  heavy.  On  applying  for 
a  ticket  I  was  refused  and  told  there  was  no  train  for 
Kyoto.  But  as  multitudes  were  buying  tickets,  and 
going  out  upon  the  platform,  I  asked  an  official  what  the 
trouble  was,  and  received  the  explanation  that  for  this 
express  train  no  tickets  could  be  sold  for  less  than  forty 
miles;  but  if  I  would  buy  a  ticket  for  the  next  station 
beyond  Kyoto,  it  would  be  all  right ;  I  could  get  ofT  at 
Kyoto.  I  was  assured  that  I  would  be  allowed  to  land 
and  leave  the  station  at  Kyoto.  This  I  did  then,  and 
have  repeatedly  done  since.  The  same  absurd  rule  is 
applied,  I  am  told,  between  Yokohama  and  Tokyo. 

But  our  interest  in  these  illustrations  is  the  light  they 
shed  on  Japanese  character.  They  indicate  the  intel- 
lectual angle  from  which  the  people  have  looked  out  on 
life.  What  is  the  origin  of  the  characteristic?  Is  it  due 
to  deep-lying  race   nature,  to  the  quality   of  the  race 


INDIRECTNESS— "NOMINALITY"       217 

brain  ?  Even  more  clearly  than  in  the  case  of  "  round- 
aboutness,"  it  seems  to  me  that  "  nominahty  "  is  due  to 
the  nature  of  the  old  social  order.  Feudalism  has 
always  exhibited  more  or  less  of  these  same  features. 
To  Anglo-Saxons,  reared  in  a  land  blessed  by  direct 
government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people,  such  methods  were  not  only  needless  but  ob- 
noxious. Nominal  responsibility  without  real  power  has 
been  seen  to  breed  numberless  evils.  We  have  learned 
to  hate  all  nominalism,  all  fiction  in  government,  in  busi- 
ness, and,  above  all,  in  personal  character.  But  this  is  due 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  social  order,  the  product  in  large 
measure  of  centuries  of  Christian  instruction. 

Through  contact  with  Westerners  and  the  ideas  they 
stand  for,  directness  and  reality  are  being  assimilated 
and  developed  by  the  Japanese.  This  would  be  im- 
possible were  the  characteristic  in  question  due  to  in- 
herent race  nature  necessarily  bequeathed  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  by  intrinsic  heredity. 


XIX 

INTELLECTUALITY 

SOME  writers  hold  that  the  Japanese  are  inherently 
deficient  in  the  higher  mental  faculties.  They  con- 
sider mediocre  mentality  to  be  an  inborn  character- 
istic of  Japan  and  assert  that  it  lies  at  the  root  of  the 
civilizational  differences  distinguishing  the  East  from  the 
West.  The  puerility  of  Oriental  science  in  all  its  depart- 
ments, the  prevalence  of  superstition  even  among  tlie 
cultivated,  the  lack  of  historical  insight  and  interpreta- 
tion of  history  are  adduced  as  conclusive  evidences  of 
this  view. 

Foreign  teachers  in  Japanese  employ  have  told  me 
that  Japanese  students,  as  compared  with  those  of  the 
West,  manifest  deficient  powers  of  analysis  and  of  gen- 
eralization. Some  even  assert  that  the  Japanese  have 
no  generalizing  ability  whatever,  their  progress  in 
civilization  being  entirely  due  to  their  remarkable  power 
of  clever  imitation.  Mr.  W.  G.  Aston,  in  ascribing  the 
characteristic  features  of  Japanese  literature  to  the  fun- 
damental nature  of  the  race,  says  they  are  ''  hardly  capa- 
ble of  high  intellectual  achievement."  * 

While  we  may  admit  that  the  Japanese  do  not  seem  to 
have  at  present  the  same  power  of  scientific  generaliza- 
tion as  Occidentals,  we  naturally  ask  ourselves  whether 
the  difference  is  due  to  natal  deficiency,  or  whether  it 
may  not  be  due  to  difiference  in  early  training.  We 
must  not  forget  that  the  youth  who  come  under  the  ob- 
servation of  foreign  teachers  in  Japanese  schools  are 
already  products  of  the  Japanese  system  of  education, 
home  and  school,  and  necessarily  are  as  defective  as  it  is. 

In  a  previous  chapter  a  few  instances  of  recent  inven- 
tion   and    important    scientific    discovery    were    given. 
*  "  Japanese  Literature,"  p.  4. 
218 


INTELLECTUALITY  2 1 9 

These  could  not  have  been  made  without  genuine  powers 
of  analysis  and  generalization.  We  need  not  linger  to 
elaborate  this  point. 

Another  set  of  facts  throwing  light  on  our  problem  is 
the  success  of  so  many  Japanese  students,  at  home  and 
in  foreign  lands,  in  mastering  modern  thought.  Great 
numbers  have  come  back  from  Europe  and  America  with 
diplomas  and  titles;  not  a  few  have  taken  high  rank  in 
their  classes.  The  Japanese  student  abroad  is  usually 
a  hard  worker,  like  his  brother  at  home.  I  doubt  if  any 
students  in  the  new  or  the  old  world  study  more  hours 
in  a  year  than  do  these  of  Japan.  It  has  often  amazed 
me  to  learn  how  much  they  are  required  to  do.  This  is 
one  fair  sign  of  intellectuality.  The  ease  too  with  which 
young  Japan,  educated  in  Occidental  schools  and  intro- 
duced to  Occidental  systems  of  thought,  acquires  ab- 
struse speculations,  searching  analyses,  and  generalized 
abstractions  proves  conclusively  Japanese  possession  of 
the  higher  mental  facuhies,  in  spite  of  the  long  survival 
in  their  civilization  of  primitive  puerility  and  supersti- 
tions and  the  lack  of  science,  properly  so  called. 

Japanese  youths,  furthermore,  have  a  fluency  in  public 
speech  decidedly  above  anything  I  have  met  with  in  the 
United  States.  Young  men  of  eighteen  or  twenty  years 
of  age  deliver  long  discourses  on  religion  or  history  or 
politics,  with  an  apparent  ease  that  their  uncouth  appear- 
ance would  not  lead  one  to  expect.  In  the  little  school 
of  less  than  150  boys  in  Kumamoto  there  were  more  in- 
dividuals who  could  talk  intelligibly  and  forcefully  on 
important  themes  of  national  policy,  the  relation  of  re- 
ligion and  politics,  the  relation  of  Japan  to  the  Occi- 
dent and  the  Orient,  than  could  be  found  in  either  of 
the  two  colleges  in  the  United  States  with  which  I  was 
connected.  I  do  not  say  that  they  could  bring  forth 
'original  ideas  on  these  topics.  But  they  could  at  least 
remember  what  they  had  heard  and  read  and  could 
reproduce  the  ideas  with  amazing  fluency. 

A  recent  public  meeting  in  Tokyo  in  which  Christian 
students  of  the  University  spoke  to  fellow-students  on 
the  great  problems  of  religion,  revealed  a  power  of  no 
mean  order  in  handling  the  peculiar  difficulties  encoun- 


220        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

tered  by  educated  young  men.  A  competent  listener, 
recently  graduated  from  an  American  university  and 
widely  acquainted  with  American  students,  declared  that 
those  Japanese  speakers  revealed  greater  powers  of  mind 
and  speech  than  would  be  found  under  similar  circum- 
stances in  the  United  States. 

The  fluency  with  which  timid  girls  pray  in  public  has 
often  surprised  me.  Once  started,  they  'never  seem  to 
hesitate  for  ideas  or  words.  The  same  girls  would 
hardly  be  able  to  utter  an  intelligible  sentence  in  replv 
to  questions  put  to  them  by  the  pastor  or  the  missionary, 
so  faint  would  be  their  voices  and  so  hesitating  the'ir 
manner. 

The  question  as  to  whether  the  Japanese  have  powers 
of  generalization  receives  some  light  from  a  study  of  the 
language  of  the  people.  An  examination  of  primitive 
Japanese  proves  that  the  race,  prior  to  receiving  even 
the  slightest  influence  from  China,  had  developed  highly 
generalized  terms.  It  is  worth  while  to  call  attention 
here  to  a  simple  fact  which  most  writers  seem  to  ignore, 
namely,  that  all  language  denotes  and  indeed  rests  on 
generalization.  Consider  the  word  "  uma,"  '  horse  " ; 
this  is  a  name  for  a  whole  class  of  objects,  and  is  there- 
fore the  product  of  a  mind  that  can  generalize  and  ex- 
press its  generalization  in  a  concept  which  no  act  of  the 
imagination  can  picture;  the  imagination  can  represent 
only  individuals ;  the  mind  that  has  concepts  of  classes  of 
things,  as,  for  instance,  of  horses,  houses,  men,  women, 
trees,  has  already  a  genuine  power  of  generalization. 
Let  me  also  call  attention  to  such  words  as  "  wake,"  "  rea- 
son " ;  "  mono,"  "  thing  "  ;  "  koto,"  "  fact  "  ;  "  aru,"  "  is  "  ; 
"  oro,"  "  lives  "  ;  "  aru  koto,"  "  is  fact,"  or  "  existence  "  ; 
"  ugoku  koto,"  "  movement  "  ;  "  omoi,"  "  thought  "  ; 
this  list  might  be  indefinitely  extended.  Let  the  reader 
consider  whether  these  words  are  not  highly  general- 
ized; yet  these  are  all  pure  Japanese  words,  and  reveal 
the  development  of  the  Japanese  mind  before  it  was  in 
the  least  influenced  by  Chinese  thought.  Evidently  it 
will  not  do  to  assert  the  entire  lack  of  the  power  of  gen- 
eralization to  the  Japanese  mind. 

Still  further  evidence  proving  Japanese  possession  of 


INTELLECTUALITY  221 

the  higher  mental  faculties  may  be  found  in  the  wide 
prevalence  and  use  of  the  most  highly  generalized  philo- 
sophical terms.  Consider  for  instance,  "  Ri  "  and  "  Ki," 
"  In  "  and  "  Yo."  No  complete  translation  can  be  found 
for  them  in  English;  "  Ri  "  and  "  Ki  "  may  be  best  trans- 
lated as  the  rational  and  the  formative  principles  in  the 
universe,  while  "  In  "  and  "  Yo  "  signify  the  active  and 
the  passive,  the  male  and  the  female,  the  light  and  the 
darkness;  in  a  word,  the  poles  of  a  positive  and  nega- 
tive. It  is  true  that  these  terms  are  of  Chinese  origin  as 
well  as  the  thoughts  themselves,  but  they  are  to-day  in 
universal  use  in  Japan.  Similar  abstract  terms  of  Bud- 
dhistic origin  are  the  possession  of  the  common  people. 

Of  course  the  possession  of  these  Chinese  terms  is 
not  offered  as  evidence  of  independent  generalizing 
ability.  But  wide  use  proves  conclusively  the  pos- 
session of  the  higher  mental  faculties,  for,  without  such 
faculties,  the  above  terms  would  be  incomprehensible  to 
the  people  and  would  find  no  place  in  common  speech. 
We  must  be  careful  not  to  give  too  much  weight  to  the 
foreign  origin  of  these  terms.  Chinese  is  to  Japanese 
what  Latin  and  Greek  are  to  modern  European  lan- 
guages. The  fact  that  a  term  is  of  Chinese  origin 
proves  nothing  as  to  the  nature  of  the  modern  Japanese 
mind.  The  developing  Japanese  civilization  demanded 
new  terms  for  her  new  instruments  and  increasing  con- 
cepts. These  for  over  fifteen  centuries  have  been  bor- 
rowed from,  or  constructed  out  of,  Chinese  in  the  same 
way  that  all  our  modern  scientific  terms  are  constructed 
out  of  Latin  and  Greek.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  of  the 
Chinese  terms,  even  those  borrowed  bodily,  have  in 
Japan  the  same  significance  as  in  China.  If  this  is  true, 
then  the  originating  feature  of  Japanese  power  of  gen- 
eralization becomes  manifest. 

Indeed  from  this  standpoint,  the  fact  that  the  Japanese 
have  made  such  extensive  use  of  the  Chinese  language 
'shows  the  degree  to  which  the  Japanese  mind  has  out- 
grown its  primitive  development,  demanding  new  terms 
for  the  expression  of  its  expanding  life.  But  mental 
growth  implies  energy  of  acquisition.  The  adoption  of 
Chinese  terms  is  not  a  passive  but  an  active  process. 


222       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

Acquisition  of  generalized  terms  can  only  take  place 
with  the  development  of  a  generalizing  mind.  Foreign 
terms  may  help,  but  they  do  not  cause  that  development. 

In  a  study  of  the  question  whether  or  not  the  Japa- 
nese possess  independent  powers  of  analysis  and  general- 
ization, we  must  ever  remember  the  unicjue  character  of 
the  social  environment  to  which  they  have  been  sub- 
jected. Always  more  or  less  of  an  isolated  nation,  they 
have  been  twice  or  thrice  suddenly  confronted  with  a 
civilization  much  superior  to  that  which  they  in  their 
isolation  had  developed.  Under  such  circumstances, 
adoption  and  modification  of  ideas  and  language  as  well 
as  of  methods  and  machinery  were  the  most  rational  and 
natural  courses. 

The  explanation  usually  given  for  the  puerilities  of 
Oriental  science,  history,  and  religion  has  been  short 
and  simple,  namely,  the  inherent  nature  of  the  Oriental 
races,  as  if  this  were  the  final  fact,  needing  and  admitting 
no  further  explanation.  That  the  Orient  has  not  develop- 
.ed  history  or  science  is  doubtless  true,  but  the  correct 
explanation  of  this  fact  is,  in  my  opinion,  that  the  educa- 
tional method  of  the  entire  Orient  has  rested  on 
mechanical  memorization;  during  the  formative  period 
of  the  mind  the  exclusive  effort  of  education  has  been  to 
develop  a  memory  which  acts  by  arbitrary  or  fanciful 
connections  and  relations.  A  Japanese  boy  of  Old 
Japan,  for  instance,  began  his  education  at  from  seven 
to  eight  years  of  age  and  spent  three  or  four  years  in 
memorizing  the  thousands  of  Chinese  hieroglyphic  char- 
acters contained  in  the  Shisho  and  Gokyo,  nine  of  the 
Chinese  classics.  This  completed,  his  teacher  would  be- 
gin to  explain  to  him  the  meaning  of  the  characters  and 
sentences.  The  entire  educational  cfifort  was  to  develop 
the  powers  of  observing  and  memorizing  accidental, 
superficial,  or  even  purely  artificial  relations.  This 
double  faculty  of  observing  trifling  and  irrelevant  details, 
and  of  remembering  them,  became  phenomenally  and 
abnormally  developed. 

Recent  works  on  the  psychologv  of  education,  how- 
ever, have  made  plain  how  an  excessive  development  of 
a  child's   lower  mental   faculties    mav    arrest    its  later 


INTELLECTUALITY  223 

growth  in  all  the  higher  departments  of  its  intellectual 
nature;  the  development  of  a  mechanical  memory  is  well 
known  as  a  serious  obstacle  to  the  higher  activities  of 
reason.  Now  Japanese  education  for  centuries,  like 
Chinese,  has  developed  such  memory.  It  trained  the 
lower  and  ignored  the  higher.  Much  of  the  Japanese 
education  of  to-day,  although  it  includes  mathematics, 
science,  and  history,  is  based  on  the  mechanical  memory 
method.  The  Orient  is  thus  a  mammoth  illustration  of 
the  effects  of  over-development  of  the  mechanical  mem- 
ory, and  the  consequent  arrest  of  the  development  of  the 
remaining  powers  of  the  mind. 

Encumbered  by  this  educational  ideal  and  system,  how 
could  the  ancient  Qiinese  and  Japanese  men  of  educa- 
tion make  a  critical  study  of  history,  or  develop  any 
science  worthy  of  the  name?  The  childish  physics  and 
astronomy,  the  brutal  therapeutics  and  the  magical  and 
superstitious  religions  of  the  Orient,  are  a  necessary 
consequence  of  its  educational  system,  not  of  its  inherent 
lack  of  the  higher  mental  powers. 

If  Japanese  children  brought  up  from  infancy  in 
American  homes,  and  sent  to  American  schools  from 
kindergarten  days  onward,  should  still  manifest  marked 
deficiencies  in  powers  of  analysis  and  generalization,  as 
compared  with  American  children,  we  should  then  be 
compelled  to  conclude  that  this  difference  is  due  to 
diverse  natal  psychic  endowment.  Generalizations  as 
to  the  inherent  intellectual  deficiencies  of  the  Oriental 
are  based  on  observations  of  individuals  already  devel- 
oped in  the  Oriental  civilization,  whose  psychic  defects 
they  accordingly  necessarily  inherit  through  the  laws  of 
social  heredity.  Such  observations  have  no  relevancy 
to  our  main  problem.  We  freely  admit  that  Oriental 
civilization  manifests  striking  deficiencies  of  develop- 
ment of  the  higher  mental  faculties,  although  it  is  not 
nearly  so  great  as  many  assert;  but  we  contend  that 
these  deficiencies  are  due  to  something  else  than  the  in- 
herent psychic  nature  of  the  Oriental  individual.  Innu- 
merable causes  have  combined  to  produce  the  Oriental 
social  order  and  to  determine  its  slow  development. 
These  cannot  be  stated  in  a  sentence,  nor  in  a  paragraph. 


224        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

In  the  final  analysis,  however,  the  causes  which  produce 
the  characteristic  features  of  Japanese  social  order  are 
the  real  sources  of  the  differentiating  intellectual  traits 
now  characterizing  the  Japanese.  Introduce  a  new  social 
heredity, — a  new  system  of  education, — one  which  rele- 
gates a  mechanical  memory  to  the  background, — one 
which  exalts  powers  of  rational  observation  of  the  pro- 
found causal  relations  of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  and 
which  sets  a  premium  on  such  observation,  analysis,  and 
generalization,  and  the  results  will  show  the  inherent 
psychic  nature  of  the  Oriental  to  be  not  different  from 
that  of  the  Occidental. 


XX 

PHILOSOPHICAL   ABILITY 

WE  are  now  prepared  to  consider  whether  or  not 
the  Japanese  have  philosophical  abihty.  The 
average  educated  Japanese  beheve  such  to  be 
the  case.  The  rapidity  and  ease  with  which  the  upper 
classes  have  abandoned  their  superstitious  faiths  is  com- 
monly attributed  by  themselves  to  the  philosophical 
nature  of  their  minds.  Similarly  the  rapid  spread  of 
so-called  rationalism  and  Unitarian  thought  and  Higher 
Criticism  among  once  earnest  Christians,  during  the 
past  decade,  they  themselves  ascribe  to  their  interest  in 
philosophical  questions,  and  to  their  ability  in  handling 
philosophical  problems. 

Foreigners,  on  the  other  hand,  usually  deny  them  the 
possession  of  philosophical  ability. 

Dr.  Peery,  in  his  volume  entitled  "  The  Gist  of 
Japan,"  says:  "  By  nature,  I  think,  they  are  more  inclined 
to  be  practical  than  speculative.  Abstract  theological 
ideas  have  little  charm  for  them.  There  is  a  large  ele- 
ment in  Japan  that  simulates  a  taste  for  philosophical 
study.  Philosophy  and  metaphysics  are  regarded 
by  them  as  the  profoundest  of  all  branches  of  learn- 
ing, and  in  order  to  be  thought  learned  they  profess 
great  interest  in  these  studies.  Not  only  are  the  highly 
metaphysical  philosophies  of  the  East  studied,  but  the 
various  systems  of  the  West  are  looked  into  likewise. 
Many  of  the  people  are  capable  of  appreciating  these 
philosophies,  too;  but  they  do  it  for  a  purpose."  Other 
writers  make  the  same  general  charge  of  philosophical 
incompetence.  One  or  two  quotations  from  Dr.  Knox's 
writings  were  given  on  this  subject,  under  the  head  of 
Imitation.* 
What,  then,  are  the  facts?  Do  the  Japanese  excel  in 
*  Cf.  chapter  xvi.  p.  199. 
225 


226        EVOLUTION    OF    THE  JAPANESE 

philosophy,  or  arc  they  conspicuously  deficient?  In 
either  case,  is  the  characteristic  due  to  essential  race 
nature  or  to  some  other  cause? 

We  must  first  distinguish  between  interest  in  philo- 
sophical problems  and  ability  in  constructing  original 
philosophical  systems.  In  this  distinction  is  to  be  found 
the  reconciliation  of  many  conflicting  views.  Many 
who  argue  for  Japanese  philosophical  ability  are  im- 
pressed with  the  interest  they  show  in  metaphysical 
problems,  while  those  who  deny  them  this  ability  are 
impressed  with  the  dependence  of  Japanese  on  Chinese 
philosophy. 

The  discussions  of  the  previous  chapter  as  to  the 
nature  of  Japanese  education  and  its  tendency  to  develop 
the  lower  at  the  expense  of  the  higher  mental  faculties, 
have  prepared  us  not  to  expect  any  particularly  brilliant 
history  of  Japanese  philosophy.  Such  is  indeed  the  case. 
Primitive  Japanese  cosmology  does  not  differ  in  any 
important  respect  from  the  primitive  cosmology  of  other 
.races.  The  number  of  those  in  Old  Japan  \v'ho  took  a 
living  interest  in  distinctly  metaphysical  problems  is  in- 
disputably small.  While  we  admit  them  to  have  mani- 
fested some  independence  and  even  originality,  as  Pro- 
fessor Inouye  urges,*  yet  it  can  hardly  be  maintained 
that  they  struck  out  any  conspicuously  original  philo- 
sophical systems.  There  is  no  distinctively  Japanese 
philosophy. 

These  facts,  however,  should  not  blind  us  to  the  dis- 
tinction between  latent  ability  in  philosophical  thought 
and  the  manifestation  of  that  ability.  The  old  social 
order,  with  its  defective  education,  its  habit  of  servi'.^  in- 
tellectual dependence  on  ancestors,  and  its  social  and 
legal  condemnation  of  independent  originality,  particu- 
larly in  the  realm  of  thought,  was  a  mighty  incubus  on 
speculative  philosophy.  Furthermore,  crude  science 
and  distorted  hi.story  could  not  provide  the  recpiisite 
material  from  which  to  construct  a  philosophical  inter- 
pretation of  the  universe  that  would  a]ipeal  to  the 
modern  Occidental. 

In  spite,  however,  of  social  and  educational  hin- 
*  Cf.  cliaptcr  .wii. 


PHILOSOPHICAL   ABILITY  227 

dranccs,  the  Japanese  have  given  ample  evidence  of 
interest  in  metaphysical  problems  and  of  more  or  less 
ability  in  their  solution.  Religious  constructions  of  the 
future  life,  conceptions  as  to  the  relations  of  gods  and 
men  and  the  universe,  are  in  fact  results  of  the  meta- 
physical operations  of  the  mind.  Primitive  Japan  was 
not  without  these.  As  she  developed  in  civilization  and 
came  in  contact  with  Chinese  and  Hindu  metaphysical 
thoupjit,  she  acquired  their  characteristic  systems. 
Buddhist  first,  and  later  Confucian,  metaphysics  domi- 
nated the  thought  of  her  educated  men.  In  view  of  the 
highly  metaphysical  character  of  Buddhist  doctrines  and 
the  interest  they  have  produced  at  least  among  the  bet- 
ter trained  priests,  the  assertion  that  the  Japanese  have 
no  ability  in  metaphysics  cannot  be  maintained. 

At  one  period  in  the  history  of  Buddhism  in  Japan, 
prolonged  public  discussions  were  all  the  fashion. 
Priests  traveled  from  temple  to  temple  to  engage  in  pub- 
lic debate.  The  ablest  debater  was  the  abbot,  and  he  had 
to  be  ready  to  face  any  opponent  who  might  appear.  If 
a  stranger  won,  the  abbot  yielded  his  place  and  his  liv- 
ing to  the  victor.  Many  an  interesting  story  is  told  of 
those  times,  and  of  the  crowds  that  would  gather  to  hear 
the  debates.  But  our  point  is  that  this  incident  in  the 
national  life  shows  the  appreciation  of  the  people  for 
philosophical  questions.  And  although  that  particular 
fashion  has  long  since  passed  away,  the  national  interest 
in  discussions  and  arguments  still  exists.  No  monks  of 
the  West  ever  enjoyed  hair-splitting  arguments  more 
than  do  many  of  the  Japanese.  They  are  as  adept  at 
mc.ital  refinements  and  logical  juggling  as  any  people 
of  the  West,  though  possibly  the  Hindus  excel  them. 

If  it  be  said  that  Confucianism  was  not  only  non- 
metaphysical,  but  uniquely  practical,  and  for  this  reason 
found  wide  acceptance  in  Japan,  the  reply  must  be  first 
that,  professing  to  be  non-metaphysical,  it  nevertheless 
had  a  real  metaphysical  system  of  thought  in  the  back- 
ground to  which  it  ever  appealed  for  authority,  a  sys- 
tem, be  it  noted,  more  in  accord  with  modern  science  and 
philosophy  than  Buddhist  metaphysics;  and  secondly, 
although  Confucianism  became  the  bulwark  of  the  state 


228        EVOLUTION    OF    THE  JAPANESE 

and  the  accepted  faith  of  the  samurai,  it  was  hmited  to 
them.  The  vast  majority  of  the  nation  clung  to  their 
primitive  Buddhistic  cosmology.  That  Confucianism 
rested  on  a  clearly  implied  and  more  or  less  clearly  ex- 
pressed metaphysical  foundation  may  be  seen  in  the 
quotations  from  the  writings  of  i\Iuro  Kyuso  which  are 
given  in  chapter  xxiv.  We  should  note  that  the  revolt 
of  the  educated  classes  of  Japan  from  Buddhism  three 
hundred  years  ago,  and  their  general  adoption  of  Con- 
fucian doctrine,  was  partly  in  the  interests  of  religion 
and  partly  in  the  interests  of  metaphysics.  In  both  re- 
spects the  progressive  part  of  the  nation  had  become  dis- 
satisfied with  Buddhism.  The  revolt  proves  not  lack  of 
religious  or  metaphysical  interest  and  insight,  but  rather 
the  reverse. 

Not  a  little  of  the  teaching  of  Shushi  (i  130-1200  a.  d.) 
and  of  Oyomei  (1472-1528  a.  d.),  Chinese  philosophical 
expounders  of  Confucianism,  is  metaphysical.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  former  was  widely  studied  and  was  the 
orthodox  doctrine  in  Japan  for  more  than  two  centuries, 
all  other  doctrine  and  philosophy  being  forbidden  by 
the  state.  It  is  true  that  the  central  interest  in  this  phil- 
osophical instruction  was  the  ethical.  It  was  felt  that 
the  entire  ethical  system  rested  on  the  acceptance  of  a 
particular  metaphysical  system.  But  so  far  from  de- 
tracting from  our  argument  this  statement  rather  adds. 
For  in  what  land  has  not  the  prime  interest  in  meta- 
physics been  ethical?  A  study  of  the  history  of 
philosophy  shows  clearly  that  philosophy  and  meta- 
physics arose  out  of  religious  and  ethical  problems, 
and  have  ever  maintained  their  hold  on  thinking  men, 
because  of  their  mutually  vital  relations.  In  Japan  it 
has  not  been  otherwise.  If  anyone  doubts  this  he 
should  read  the  Japanese  philosophers — in  the  original, 
if  possible;  if  not,  then  in  such  translations  and  extracts 
as  Dr.  Knox  has  given  us  in  his  "A  Japanese  Phi- 
losopher," and  Mr.  Aston  in  his  "  Japanese  Literature." 
The  ethical  interest  is  primary,  and  the  metaphysical 
interest  is  secondary,*  to  be  sure,  but  not  to  be  denied. 

*  Quotations  from  "  A  Jaiianese  Philosopher  "  will  be  found  in 
chapters  xxiv.  and  xxvi. 


PHILOSOPHICAL   ABILITY  229 

Occidental  philosophy  has  found  many  earnest  and 
capable  Japanese  students.  The  Imperial  University 
has  a  strong  corps  of  philosophical  instructors.  Occi- 
dental metaphysical  thought,  both  materialistic  and 
idealistic,  has  found  many  congenial  minds.  Indeed, 
it  is  not  rash  to  say  that  in  the  thought  of  New  Japan 
the  distinguishing  Oriental  metaphysical  conceptions  of 
the  universe  have  been  entirely  displaced  by  those  of 
the  West.  Christians,  in  particular,  have  entirely  aban- 
doned the  old  polytheistic,  pantheistic,  and  fatahstic 
metaphysics  and  have  adopted  thoroughgoing  mono- 
theism. 

Ability  to  understand  and  sufficient  interest  to  study 
through  philosophical  and  metaphysical  systems  of 
foreign  lands  indicate  a  mental  development  of  no  slight 
order,  whatever  may  be  the  ability,  or  lack  of  it,  in 
making  original  contributions  to  the  subject.  That 
educated  Japanese  have  shown  real  ability  in  the  former 
sense  can  hardly  be  doubted  by  those  who  have  read 
the  writings  of  such  men  as  Goro  Takahashi,  ex-presi- 
dent Hiroyuki  Kato,  Prof.  Yujiro  Motora,  Prof.  Rikizo 
Nakashima,  or  Dr.  Tetsujiro  Inouye.  The  philosophical 
brightness  of  many  of  Japan's  foreign  as  well  as  home- 
trained  scholars  argues  well  for  the  philosophical  ability 
of  the  nation. 

A  recent  conversation  with  a  young  Japanese  gives 
point  to  what  has  just  been  said.  The  young  man  sud- 
denly appeared  at  my  study  door,  and,  with  unusually 
brief  salutations,  said  that  he  wished  me  to  talk  to  him 
about  religion.  In  answer  to  questions  he  explained 
that  he  had  been  one  of  my  pupils  ten  years  ago  in  the 
Kumamoto  Boys'  School;  that  he  had  been  baptized 
as  a  Christian  at  that  time,  but  had  become  cold  and 
filled  with  doubts ;  that  he  had  been  studying  ever  since, 
having  at  one  time  given  considerable  attention  to  the 
Zen  sect  of  Buddhism;  but  that  he  had  found  no  satis- 
faction there.  He  accordingly  wished  to  study  Christi- 
anity more  carefully.  For  three  hours  we  talked,  he 
asking  questions  about  the  Christian  conception  of  God, 
of  the  universe,  of  man,  of  sin,  of  evolution,  of  Christ, 
of  salvation,  of  the  object  of  life,  of  God's  purpose  in 


230        EVOLUTION  OF  THE   JAPANESE 

creation,  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  Bible.  Toward 
the  latter  part  of  our  conversation,  referring  to  one  idea 
expressed,  he  said,  "  That  is  about  what  Hegel  held,  is 
it  not?"  As  he  spoke  he  opened  his  knapsack,  which 
I  then  saw  to  be  full  of  books,  and  drew  out  an  English 
translation  of  Hegel's  "  Philosophy  of  History";  he  had 
evidently  read  it  carefully,  making  his  notes  in  Japa- 
nese on  the  margin.  I  asked  him  if  he  had  read  it 
through.  "  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  three  times."  He  also 
incidentally  informed  me  that  he  had  thought  of  entering 
our  mission  theological  training  class  during  the  pre- 
vious winter,  but  that  he  was  then  in  the  midst  of  the 
study  of  the  philosophy  of  Kant,  and  had  accordingly 
decided  to  defer  entering  until  the  autumn.  How  thor- 
oughly he  had  mastered  these,  the  most  profound  and 
abstruse  metaphysicians  that  the  West  can  boast,  I  can- 
not state.  But  this  at  least  is  clear ;  his  interest 
in  them  was  real  and  lasting.  And  in  his  conversation 
he  showed  keen  appreciation  of  philosophical  problems. 
It  is  to  be  noted  also  that  he  was  a  self-taught  phi- 
losopher— for  he  had  attended  no  school  since  he  studied 
elementary  English,  ten  years  before,  while  a  lad  of  less 
than  twenty. 

As  a  sample  of  the  kind  of  men  I  not  infrequently 
meet,  let  me  cite  the  case  of  a  young  business  man 
who  once  called  on  me  in  the  hotel  at  Imabari,  popularly 
called  "  the  little  philosopher."  He  wished  to  talk  about 
the  problem  of  the  future  life  and  to  ask  my  personal 
belief  in  the  matter.  He  said  that  he  believed  in  God 
and  in  Jesus  as  Plis  unique  son  and  revealer,  but  that  he 
found  great  difftculty  in  believing  in  the  continued  life 
of  the  soul  after  death.  His  difificulty  arose  from  the 
problems  of  the  nature  of  future  thinking;  shall  we  con- 
tinue to  think  in  terms  of  sense  perception,  such  as 
time,  space,  form,  color,  pleasure,  and  pain?  If  not. 
how  can  we  think  at  all?  And  can  we  then  remember 
our  present  life?  If  we  do,  then  the  future  life  will  not 
be  essentially  different  from  this,  /.  c,  we  must  still  have 
physical  senses,  and  continue  to  live  in  an  essentially 
physical  world.     Here  was  a  set  of  objections  to  the 


PHILOSOPHICAL   ABILITY  231 

doctrine  of  the  future  life  that  I  have  never  heard  as 
much  as  mentioned  by  any  Occidental  youth.  Though 
without  doubt  not  original  with  him,  yet  he  must  have 
had  in  some  degree  both  philosophical  ability  and  in- 
terest in  order  to  appreciate  their  force  and  to  seek  their 
solution. 

In  conversation  not  long  since  with  a  Buddhist  priest 
of  the  Tendai  sect,  after  responding  to  his  request  for 
a  criticism  of  Buddhism,  I  asked  him  for  a  similarly 
frank  criticism  of  Christianity.  To  my  surprise,  he 
said  that  while  Christianity  was  far  ahead  of  Buddhism 
in  its  practical  parts  and  in  its  power  to  mold  char- 
acter, it  was  deficient  in  philosophical  insight  and  in- 
terest. This  led  to  a  prolonged  conversation  on 
Buddhistic  philosophy,  in  which  he  explained  the  doc- 
trines of  the  "  Ku-ge-chu,"  and  the  "  Usa  and  Musa." 
Without  attempting  to  explain  them  here,  I  may  say 
that  the  first  is  amazingly  like  Hegel's  "  absolute  noth- 
ing," with  its  thesis,  antithesis,  and  synthesis,  and  the 
second  a  psychological  distinction  between  volitional 
and  spontaneous  emotions. 

In  discussing  Japanese  philosophical  ability,  a  point 
often  forgotten  is  the  rarity  of  philosophical  ability  or 
even  interest  in  the  West.  But  a  small  proportion  of 
college  students  have  the  slightest  interest  in  philo- 
sophical or  metaphysical  problems.  The  majority  do 
not  understand  what  the  distinctive  metaphysical  prob- 
lems are.  In  my  experience  it  is  easier  to  enter  into  a 
conversation  with  an  educated  man  in  Japan  on  a 
philosophical  question  than  with  an  American.  If  in- 
terest in  philosophical  and  metaphysical  questions  in 
the  West  is  rare,  original  ability  in  their  investigation 
is  still  rarer. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  in  regard  to  philosophical 
ability  the  Japanese  have  no  marked  racial  character- 
istic dififerentiating  them  from  other  races.  Although 
they  have  not  developed  a  distinctive  national  phi- 
losophy, this  is  not  due  to  inherent  philosophical  in- 
competence. Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  relatively 
wide  interest  now  manifest  in  philosophical  problems 


232       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

attributable  to  the  inherent  philosophical  ability  of  the 
race.  So  far  as  Japan  is  either  behind  or  in  advance 
of  other  races,  in  this  respect,  it  is  due  to  her  social 
order  and  social  inheritance,  and  particularly  to  the 
nature,  methods,  and  aims  of  the  educational  system,  but 
not  to  her  intrinsic  psychic  inheritance. 


XXI 

IMAGINATION 

IN  no  respect,  perhaps,  have  the  Japanese  been  more 
sweepingly  criticised  by  foreigners  than  in  regard 
to  their  powers  of  imagination  and  ideahsm,  Un- 
quahfied  generaHzations  not  only  assert  the  entire  lack 
of  these  powers,  but  they  consider  this  lack  to  be  the 
distinguishing  inherent  mental  characteristic  of  the  race. 
The  Japanese  are  called  "  prosaic,"  "  matter-of-fact," 
"  practical,"  "  unimaginative." 

Mr.  Walter  Dening,  describing  Japanese  mental  char- 
acteristics, says: 

"  Neither  their  past  history  nor  their  prevailing 
tastes  show  any  tendency  to  idealism.  They  are 
lovers  of  the  practical  and  the  real ;  neither  the 
fancies  of  Goethe  nor  the  reveries  of  Hegel  are  to  their 
liking.  Our  poetry  and  our  philosophy  and  the  mind 
that  appreciates  them  are  aUke  the  results  of  a  network 
of  subtle  influences  to  which  the  Japanese  are  compara- 
tive strangers.  It  is  maintained  by  some,  and  we  think 
justly,  that  the  lack  of  idealism  in  the  Japanese  mind 
renders  the  life  of  even  the  most  cultivated  a  mechanical, 
humdrum  afifair  when  compared  with  that  of  Westerners. 
The  Japanese  cannot  understand  why  our  controversial- 
ists should  wax  so  fervent  over  psychological,  ethical, 
religious,  and  philosophical  questions,  failing  to  perceive 
that  this  fervency  is  the  result  of  the  intense  interest 
taken  in  such  subjects.  The  charms  that  the  cultured 
Western  mind  finds  in  the  world  of  fancy  and  romance, 
in  questions  themselves,  irrespective  of  their  practical 
bearings,  is  for  the  most  part  unintelligible  to  the 
Japanese."  * 

*'*  Things  Japanese,"  p.  233. 

233 


234        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

Mr.  Percival  Lowell  expends  an  entire  chapter  in 
his  "  Soul  of  the  Far  East,"  in  showing  how  important 
imagination  is  as  a  factor  in  art,  religion,  science,  and 
civilization  generally,  and  how  strikingly  deficient  Japa- 
nese are  in  this  faculty.  "  The  F"ar  Orientals,"  he 
argues,  "  ought  to  be  a  particularly  unimaginative  set 
of  people.  Such  is  precisely  what  they  are.  Their 
lack  of  imagination  is  a  well-recognized  fact."* 

Mr.  Aston,  characterizing  Japanese  literature,  says: 

"  A  feature  which  strikingly  distinguishes  the  Japanese 
poetic  muse  from  that  of  Western  nations  is  a  certain 
lack  of  imaginative  power.  The  Japanese  are  slow  to 
endow  inanimate  objects  with  life.  Shelley's  '  Cloud,' 
for  example,  contains  enough  matter  of  this  kind  for 
many  volumes  of  Japanese  verse.     Such  lines  as: 

'  From  my  wings  are  shaken 
The  dews  that  waken 
The  sweet  buds  every  one, 
When  rocked  to  rest 
On  their  mother's  breast 
As  she  dances  about  the  sun,' 

would  appear  to   them   ridiculously   overcharged  with 
metaphor,  if  not  absolutely  unintelligible."* 

On  the  other  hand,  some  writers  have  called  attention 
to  the  contrary  element  of  Japanese  mental  nature. 
Prof.  Ladd,  for  instance,  maintains  that  the  character- 
istic mental  trait  of  the  Japanese  is  their  sentimentality. 
He  has  shown  how  their  lives  are  permeated  with  and 
regulated  by  sentiment.  Ancestral  worship,  patriotism. 
Imperial  apotheosis,  friendship,  arc  fashioned  by  ideal- 
izing sentiment.  In  our  chapters  on  the  emotional 
elements  of  Japanese  character  we  have  considered  how 
widespread  and  ])owerful  these  ideals  and  sentiments 
have  been  and  still  are. 

Writers  who  compare  the  Chinese  with  the  Japanese 
remark  the  practical  business  nature  of  the  former  and 
the  impractical,  visionary  nature  of  the  latter. 

For  a  proper  estimate  of  our  problem  we  should 
♦P.  213.  tP-3o. 


IMAGINATION  235 

clearly  distinguish  between  the  various  forms  of  im- 
agination. It  reveals  itself  not  merely  in  art  and 
literature,  in  fantastic  conception,  in  personification 
and  metaphor,  but  in  every  important  department  of 
human  life.  It  is  the  tap-root  of  progress,  as  Mr. 
Lowell  well  points  out.  It  pictures  an  ideal  life  in  ad- 
vance of  the  actual,  which  ideal  becomes  the  object  of 
effort.  The  forms  of  imagination  may,  therefore,  be 
classified  according  to  the  sphere  of  life  in  which  it 
appears.  In  addition  to  the  poetic  fancy  and  the 
idealism  of  art  and  literature  generally,  we  must  dis- 
tinguish the  work  of  imagination  in  the  aesthetic,  in 
the  moral,  in  the  religious,  in  the  scientific,  and  in  the 
political  life.  The  manifestation  of  the  imaginative 
faculty  in  art  and  in  literature  is  only  one  part  of  the 
aesthetic  imagination. 

In  studying  Japanese  aesthetic  characteristics,  we 
noted  how  unbalanced  was  the  development  of  their 
aesthetic  sense.  This  proposition  of  unbalanced  devel- 
opment applies  with  equal  force  to  the  imaginative 
faculty  as  a  whole.  Conspicuously  lacking  in  certain 
directions,  it  is  as  conspicuously  prominent  in  others. 
Rules  of  etiquette  are  the  products  of  the  sesthetic 
imagination,  and  in  what  land  has  etiquette  been  more 
developed  than  in  feudal  Japan?  Japanese  imagination 
has  been  particularly  active  in  the  political  world.  The 
passionate  loyalty  of  retainers  to  their  lord,  of  samurai 
to  their  daimyo',  of  all  to  their  "  kuni,"  or  clan,  in 
ancient  times,  and  now,  of  the  people  to  their  Emperor, 
are  the  results  of  a  vivid  political  idealizing  imagina- 
tion. Imperial  apotheosis  is  a  combination  of  the 
political  and  religious  imagination.  And  in  what  land 
has  the  apotheosizing  imagination  been  more  active 
than  in  Japan?*  Ambition  and  self-conceit  are  like- 
wise dependent  on  an  active  imaginative  faculty. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  the  writers  quoted  above  have 
drawn  attention  to  some  salient  features  of  Japanese 
art.  In  the  literature  of  the  past,  the  people  have  not 
manifested  that  high  literary  imagination  that  we  dis- 
cover   in    the    best    literature    of    many    other    nations. 


236       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

This  fact,  however,  will  not  justify  the  sweeping  gen- 
eralizations based  upon  it.  Judging  from  the  pre- 
Elizabethan  literature,  who  would  have  expected  the 
brilliancy  of  the  Elizabethan  period?  Similarly  in  re- 
gard to  the  Victorian  period  of  English  literature. 
Because  the  Japanese  have  failed  in  the  past  to  produce 
literature  equal  to  the  best  of  Western  lands,  we  are 
not  justified  in  asserting  that  she  never  will  and  that 
she  is  inherently  deficient  in  literary  imagination.  In 
regard  to  certain  forms  of  light  fancy,  all  admit  that 
Japanese  poems  are  unsurpassed  by  those  of  other 
lands.  Japanese  amative  poetry  is  noted  for  its  deli- 
cate fancies  and  plays  on  words  exceedingly  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  of  translation,  or  even  of  expression,  to 
one  unacquainted  with  the  language. 

The  deficiencies  of  Japanese  literature,  therefore,  are 
not  such  as  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  they  both 
mark  and  make  a  fundamental  difference  in  the  race 
mind.  For  such  differences  as  exist  are  capable  of  a 
sociological  explanation. 

The  prosaic  matter-of-factness  of  the  Japanese  mind 
has  been  so  widely  emphasized  that  we  need  not  dwell 
upon  it  here.  There  is,  however,  serious  danger  of 
over-emphasis,  a  danger  into  which  all  writers  fall  who 
make  it  the  ground  for  sweeping  condemnatory  criti- 
cism. They  are  right  in  ascribing  to  the  average  Japa- 
nese a  large  amount  of  unimaginative  matter-of-fact- 
ness, but  they  are  equally  wrong  in  unqualified  dogmatic 
generalizations.  They  base  their  inductions  on  in- 
sufificient  facts,  a  habit  to  which  foreigners  are  peculiarly 
liable,  through  ignorance  of  the  language  and  also  of 
the  inner  thoughts  and  life  of  the  people. 

The  prosaic  nature  of  the  Japanese  has  not  impressed 
me  so  much  as  the  visionary  tendency  of  the  people, 
and  their  idealism.  The  Japanese  themselves  count  this 
idealism  a  national  characteristic.  They  say  that  they  are 
theorizers,  and  numberless  experiences  confirm  this  view. 

They  project  great  undertakings;  they  scheme;  they 
discuss  contingencies;  they  make  enormous  j^lans;  ail 
with  an  air  of  seriousness  and  yet  with  a  nonchalance 
which  shows  a  semi-consci(-)US  sense  of  the  unrcalit\-  of 


IMAGINATION  237 

their  proposals.  In  regard  to  Korea  and  China  and 
Formosa,  they  have  hatched  poHtical  and  business 
schemes  innumerable.  The  kaleidoscopic  character  of 
Japanese  politics  is  in  part  due  to  the  rapid  succession 
of  visionary  schemes.  One  idea  reigns  for  a  season, 
only  to  be  displaced  by  another,  causing  constant  re- 
adjustment of  political  parties.  Frequent  attacks  on 
government  foreign  policy  depend  for  their  force  on 
lordly  ideas  as  to  the  part  Japan  should  play  in  inter- 
national relations.  Writing  about  the  recent  discus- 
sions in  the  public  press  over  the  question  of  intro- 
ducing foreign  capital  into  Japan,  one  contributor  to 
the  Far  East  remarks  that  "  It  has  been  treated  more 
from  a  theoretical  than  from  a  practical  standpoint.  .  . 
This  seems  to  me  to  arise  from  a  peculiar  trait  of 
Japanese  mind  -which  is  prone  to  dwell  solely  on  the 
theoretical  side  until  the  march  of  events  compels  a 
sudden  leap  toward  the  practical."  This  visionary  fac- 
ulty of  the  Japanese  is  especially  conspicuous  in  the 
daily  press.  Editorials  on  foreign  affairs  and  on  the 
relations  of  Japan  to  the  world  are  full  of  it. 

I  venture  to  jot  down  a  few  illustrations  of  im- 
practical idealism  out  of  my  personal  knowledge.  An 
evangelist  in  the  employ  of  the  Kumamoto  station 
exemplified  this  visionary  trait  in  a  marked  degree. 
Nervous  in  the  extreme,  he  was  constantly  having  new 
ideas.  For  some  reason  his  attention  was  turned  to 
the  subject  of  opium  and  the  evils  China  was  suffering 
from  the  drug,  forced  on  her  by  England.  Forthwith 
he  came  to  me  for  books  on  the  subject;  he  wished  to 
become  fully  informed,  and  then  he  proposed  to  go  to 
China  and  preach  on  the  subject.  For  a  few  weeks  he 
was  full  of  his  enterprise.  It  seemed  to  him  that  if 
he  were  only  allowed  the  opportunity  he  could  convince 
the  Chinese  of  their  error,  and  the  English  of  their 
crime.  One  of  his  plans  was  to  go  to  England  and 
expostulate  with  them  on  their  un-Qiristian  dealings 
with  China.  A  few  weeks  later  his  attention  was  turned 
to  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the  poor  on  account  of  their 
ignorance  about  law  and  their  inability  to  get  legal 
assistance.     This  idea  held  him  longer  than  the  previous. 


238        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

He  desired  to  study  law  and  become  a  public  pleader 
in  order  to  defend  the  poor  against  unjust  men  of 
wealth.  In  his  theological  ideas  he  was  likewise  ex- 
treme and  changeable;  swinging  from  positive  and 
most  emphatic  belief  to  extreme  doubt,  and  later  back 
again.  In  his  periods  of  triumphant  faith  it  seemed 
to  him  that  he  could  teach  the  world;  and  his  expositions 
of  truth  were  extremely  interesting.  He  proposed  to 
formulate  a  new  theology  that  would  dissolve  forever 
the  difhculties  of  the  old  theology.  In  his  doubts,  too, 
he  was  no  less  interesting  and  assertive.  His  hold  on 
practical  matters  was  exceedingly  slender.  His  salary, 
though  considerably  larger  than  that  of  most  of  the 
evangelists,  was  never  sufficient.  He  would  spend  lav- 
ishly at  the  beginning  of  the  month  so  long  as  he  had 
the  money,  and  then  would  pinch  himself  or  else  fall 
into  debt. 

Mr.  ,  the  head  of  the  Kumamoto  Boys'  School 

during  the  period  of  its  fierce  struggles  and'  final  col- 
lapse, whom  I  have  already  referred  to  as  the  Hero- 
Principal,*  is  another  example  of  this  impractical  high- 
strung  visionariness.  No  sooner  had  he  reached 
Kumamoto,  than  there  opened  before  our  enchanted 
eyes  the  vision  of  this  little  insignificant  school  bloom- 
ing out  into  a  great  university.  True,  there  had  been 
some  of  this  bombast  before  his  arrival;  but  it  took  on 
new  and  gorgeous  form  under  his  master  hand.  The 
airs  that  he  put  on,  displaying  his  (fraudulent)  Ph.  D., 
and  talking  a])out  his  schemes,  are  simply  amusing  to 
contemplate  from  this  distance.  His  studies  in  the 
philosophy  of  religion  had  so  clarified  his  mind  that 
he  was  going  to  reform  both  Christianity  and  Buddhism. 
His  sermons  of  florid  eloquence  and  vociferous  power, 
never  less  than  an  hour  in  length,  were  as  marked  in 
ambitious  thoughts  as  in  puljMt  mannerisms.  He  threw 
a  spell  over  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him.  He  over- 
awed them  by  his  vehemence  and  tremendous  earnest- 
ness and  insistence  on  perfect  obedience  to  his  masterful 
will.  In  one  of  his  climactic  sermons,  after  charging 
missionaries  with  teaching  dangerous  errors,  he  said 
♦  Cf.  chapter  vii. 


IMAGINATION  239 

that  while  some  were  urging  that  the  need  of  the  times 
was  to  "  hie  back  to  Luther,"  and  others  were  saying 
that  we  must  "  hie  back  to  Christ  "  (these  EngHsh 
words  being  brought  into  his  Japanese  sermon),  they 
were  both  wrong;  we  must  "  hie  back  to  God  ";  and  he 
prophesied  a  reformation  in  rehgion,  beginning  there  in 
Kumamoto,  in  that  school,  which  would  be  far  and 
away  more  important  in  the  history  of  the  world  than 
was  the  Lutheran  Reformation. 

The  recent  history  of  Christianity  in  Japan  supplies 
many  striking  instances  of  visionary  plans  and  visionary 
enthusiasts.  The  confident  expectation  entertained 
during  the  eighties  of  Christianizing  the  nation  before 
the  close  of  the  century  was  such  a  vision.  Another, 
arising  a  few  years  later,  was  the  importance  of 
returning  all  foreign  missionaries  to  their  native  lands 
and  of  intrusting  the  entire  evangelistic  work  to  native 
Christians,  and  committing  to  them  the  administration 
of  the  immense  sums  thus  set  free.  For  it  was  assumed 
by  these  brilliant  Utopians  that  the  amount  of  money 
expended  in  supporting  missionaries  would  be  avail- 
able for  aggressive  work  should  the  missionaries  be 
withdrawn,  and  that  the  Christians  in  foreign  lands 
would  continue  to  pour  in  their  contributions  for  the 
xTevangelization  of  Japan. 
Jf  Still  another  instance  of  Utopian  idealism  is  the 
/  vision  that  Japan  will  give  birth  to  that  perfect  religion, 
'  meeting  the  demands  of  both  heart  and  head,  for  which 
the  world  waits.  In  January,  1900,  Prof.  T.  Inouye,  of 
the  Imperial  University,  after  showing  quite  at  length, 
and  to  his  own  satisfaction,  the  inadequacy  of  all  exist- 
ing religions  to  meet  the  ethical  and  religious  situation 
in  Japan,  maintained  this  ambitious  view. 

Some  Japanese  Christians  are  declaring  the  need  of 
Japonicized  Christianity.  "  Did  not  the  Greeks  trans- 
form Christianity  before  they  accepted  it?  And  did  not 
the  Romans,  and  finally  the  Germans,  do  the  same? 
Before  Japan  will  or  can  accept  the  religion  of  Christ, 
it  must  be  Japonicized."  So  they  argue;  "and  who  so 
fit  to  do  it  as  we?"  lies  in  the  background  of  their 
thought. 


240       EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

Many  a  Christian  pastor  and  evangelist,  although  not 
sharing  the  ambition  of  Prof.  Inouye,  nevertheless 
glows  with  the  confident  expectation  that  Japonicized 
Christianity  will  be  its  most  perfect  type.  "  No  one 
need  wonder  if  Japan  should  be  destined  to  present  to 
the  world  the  best  type  of  Christanity  that  has  yet 
appeared  in  history,"  writes  an  exponent  of  this  view, 
at  one  time  a  Christian  pastor.  In  this  connection  the 
reader  may  recall  what  was  said  in  chapter  xiv.  on 
Japanese  Ambition  and  Conceit,  qualities  depending  on 
the  power  of  seeing  visions.  We  note,  in  passing,  the 
optimistic  spirit  of  New  Japan.  This  is  in  part  due, 
no  doubt,  to  ignorance  of  the  problems  that  lie  athwart 
their  future  progress,  but  it  is  also  due  to  the  vivid 
imaginative  faculty  which  pictures  for  them  the  glories 
of  the  coming  decades  when  they  shall  lead  not  only 
tlie  Orient,  but  also  the  Occident,  in  every  line  of  civi- 
lization, material  and  spiritual,  moral  and  religious.  A 
dull,  unimaginative,  prosaic  nature  cannot  be  exuber- 
antly optimistic.  It  is  evident  that  writers  who  pro- 
claim the  unimaginative  matter-of-factness  of  the 
Japanese  as  universal  and  absolute,  have  failed  to  see 
a  large  side  of  Japanese  inner  life. 

Mr.  Percival  Lowell  states  that  the  root  of  all  the 
peculiarities  of  Oriental  peoples  is  their  marked  lack 
of  imagination.  This  is  the  faculty  that  "  mav  in  a 
certain  sense  be  said  to  be  the  creator  of  the  world." 
The  lack  of  this  faculty,  according  to  Mr.  Lowell,  is 
the  root  of  the  Japanese  lack  of  originality  and  inven- 
tion; it  gives  the  whole  Oriental  civilization  its  char- 
acteristic features.  He  cites  a  few  words  to  prove  the 
essentially  prosaic  character  of  the  Japanese  mind,  such 
as  "  up-down  "  for  "  pass  "  (which  word,  by  the  way,  is 
his  own  invention,  and  reveals  his  ignorance  of  the 
language),  "the  being  (so)  is  difificult,"  in  place  of  "thank 
you."  "  A  lack  of  any  fanciful  ideas,"  he  savs,  "  is  one 
of  the  most  salient  traits  of  all  Far  Eastern'  peoples,  if 
indeed  a  sad  dearth  can  properly  be  called  salient.  In- 
directly, their  want  of  imagination  betrays  itself  in  their 
everyday  sayings  and  doings,  and  more  dircctlv  in  every 
branch  of  thought."     I  note,  in  passing,  that  INIr.  Lowell 


IMAGINATION  241 

does  not  distinguish  between  fancy  and  imagination. 
Though  allied  faculties,  they  are  distinct.  Mr.  Lowell's 
extreme  estimate  of  the  prosaic  nature  of  the  Japanese 
mind  I  cannot  share.  Many  letters  received  from 
Japanese  friends  refute  this  view  by  their  fanciful  ex- 
pressions. The  Japanese  language,  too,  has  many  fan- 
ciful terms.  Why  "  pass  "  is  any  more  imaginative  than 
"  up-down,"  to  accept  Mr.  Lowell's  etymology,  or  "  the 
being  (so)  is  difficult  "  than  "  thank  you,"  I  do  not 
see.  To  me  the  reverse  proposition  would  seem  the 
truer.  And  are  not  "  breaking-horns "  for  "  on  pur- 
pose," and  "  breaking-bones  "  for  "  with  great  difficulty," 
distinctly  imaginative  terms,  more  imaginative  than  the 
English?  In  the  place  of  our  English  term  "sun," 
the  Japanese  have  several  alternative  terms  in  common 
use,  such  as  "  hi,"  "  day,"  ''  Nichirin,"  "  day-ball," 
"  Tcn-to  Sama,"  "the  god  of  heaven's  light;"  and  fof 
"  moon,"  it  has  "  tsiiki,"  "  month,"  "  gctsu-rin,"  "  month 
ball."  The  names  given  to  her  men-of-war  also  indicate 
a  fanciful  nature.  The  torpedo  destroyers  are  named 
"  Dragon-fly,"  "  Full  Moon,"  "  The  Moon  in  the  Cloud," 
"  Seabeach,"  "  Dawn  of  Day,"  "  Clustering  Clouds," 
"  Break  of  Day,"  "  Ripples,"  "  Evening  Mist," 
"Dragon's Lamp,"  "Falcon,"  "  Magpie,"  "White-naped 
Crane,"  and  "  White  Hawk."  Surely,  it  cannot  be  main- 
tained that  the  Japanese  are  utterly  lacking  in  fancy. 

Distinguishing  between  fancy  as  "  the  power  of  form- 
ing pleasing,  graceful,  whimsical,  or  odd  mental  images, 
or  of  combining  them  with  little  regard  to  rational 
processes  of  construction,"  and  imagination,  in  its  more 
philosophical  use,  as  "  the  act  of  constructive  intellect 
in  grouping  the  materials  of  knowledge  or  thought  into 
new,  original,  and  rational  svstems,"  we  assert  without 
fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  the  Japanese  race 
is  not  without  either  of  these  important  mental  facul- 
ties. 

In  addition  to  the  preceding  illustrations  of  visionary 
and  fanciful  traits,  let  the  reader  reflect  on  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  comic  and  of  caricature  in  art.  Japanese 
Netsuke  (tiny  carvings  of  exquisite  skill  representing 
comical    men,   women,   and   children)   are    famous   the 


242        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

world  over.  Surely,  the  fancy  is  the  most  conspicuous 
mental  characteristic  revealed  in  this  branch  of  Japanese 
art.  In  Japanese  poetry  "  a  vast  number  of  conceits, 
more  or  less  pretty,"  are  to  be  found,  likewise  manifest- 
ing the  fancy  of  both  the  authors  who  wrote  and  the 
people  who  were  pleased  with  and  preserved  their  writ- 
ings.* The  so-called  "  impersonal  habit  of  the  Japanese 
mind,"  with  a  corresponding  "  lack  of  personification 
of  abstract  qualities,"  doubtless  prevents  Japanese  lit- 
erature from  rising  to  the  poetic  heights  attained  by 
Western  nations.  But  this  lack  does  not  prove  the 
Japanese  mind  incapable  of  such  flights.  As  describ- 
ing the  actual  characteristics  of  the  literature  of  the 
past  the  assertion  of  "  a  lack  of  imaginative  power  "  is 
doubtless  fairly  correct.  But  the  inherent  nature  of 
the  Japanese  mind  cannot  be  inferred  from  the  de- 
ficiencies of  its  past  literature,  without  first  examining 
the  relation  between  its  characteristic  features  and  the 
nature  ®f  the  social  order  and  the  social  inheritance. 

Are  the  Japanese  conspicuously  deficient  in  imagina- 
tion, in  the  sense  of  the  definition  given  above?  The 
constructive  imagination  is  the  creator  of  civilization. 
Not  only  art  and  literature,  but,  as  already  noted, 
science,  philosophy,  politics,  and  even  the  practical  arts 
and  prosaic  farming  are  impossible  without  it.  It  is 
the  tap-root  of  invention,  of  discovery,  of  originality. 

It  is  needless  to  repeat  what  has  been  said  in  previous 
chapters  f  on  Japanese  imitation,  invention,  discovery, 
and  originality.  Yet,  in  consideration  of  the  facts  there 
given,  are  we  justified  in  counting  the  Japanese  so  con- 
spicuously deficient  in  constructive  imagination  as  to 
warrant  the  assertion  that  such  a  lack  is  the  fundamental 
characteristic  of  the  race  psychic  nature? 

As  an  extreme  case,  look  for  a  moment  at  their  imita- 
tivcness.  Although  imitation  is  considered  a  proof  of 
deficient  originality,  and  thus  of  imagination,  yet  reflec- 
tion shows  that  this  depends  on  the  nature  of  the 
imitation.     Japanese    imitation    has    not    been,    except 

*  Cf.  chapter  xv.  pj).  i86,  187. 
f  Cf.  chapters  xvi.  ami  xvii. 


IMAGINATION  243 

possibly  for  short  periods,  of  that  slavish  nature  which 
excludes  the  work  of  the  imagination.  Indeed,  the 
impulse  to  imitation  rests  on  the  imagination.  But 
for  this  faculty  picturing  the  state  of  bliss  or  power 
secured  in  consequence  of  adopting  this  or  that  feature 
of  an  alien  civilization,  the  desire  to  imitate  could  not 
arise.  In  view,  moreover,  of  the  selective  nature  of 
Japanese  imitation,  we  are  further  warranted  in  ascrib- 
ing to  the  people  no  insignificant  development  of  the 
imagination. 

In  illustration,  consider  Japan's  educational  system. 
Established  no  doubt  on  Occidental  models,  it  is  never- 
theless a  distinctly  Japanese  institution.  Its  buildings 
arc  as  characteristically  Japonicized  Occidental  school 
buildings  as  are  its  methods  of  instruction.  Japanese 
railroads  and  steamers,  likewise  constructed  in  Japan, 
are  similarly  Japonicized — adapted  to  the  needs  and  con- 
ditions of  the  people.  To  our  eyes  this  of  course  sig- 
nifies no  improvement,  but  assuredly,  without  such 
modification,  our  Western  railroads  and  steamers  would 
be  white  elephants  on  their  hands,  expensive  and  difificult 
of  operation. 

What  now  is  the  sociological  interpretation  of  the 
foregoing  facts?  How  are  the  fanciful,  visionary,  and 
idealistic  characteristics,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the 
other,  the  prosaic,  matter-of-fact,  and  relatively  unim- 
aginative characteristics,  related  to  the  social  order? 

It  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  the  presence  of 
accentuated  visionariness  in  Japan.  Indeed,  this  quality 
is  conspicuous  among  the  descendants  of  the  military 
and  literary  classes;  and  this  fact  furnishes  us  the  clew. 
"  From  time  immemorial,"  to  use  a  phrase  common  on 
the  lips  of  Japanese  historians,  up  to  the  present  era,  the 
samurai  as  a  class  were  quite  separated  Jrom  the 
practical  world;  they  were  comfortably  supported  by 
their  liege  lords;  entirely  relieved  from  the  necessity  of 
toiling  for  their  daily  bread,  they  busied  themselves  not 
only  .with  war  and  physical  training,  but  with  literary 
accomplishments,  that  required  no  less  strenuous  mental 
exertions. 

Furthermore,  in  a  class  thus  freed  from  daily  toil, 


244       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

there  was  sure  to  arise  a  refined  system  of  etiquette 
and  ol  rank  distinctions.  Even  a  few  centuries  of  life 
would,  under  such  conditions,  develop  highly  nervous 
individuals  in  large  numbers,  hypersensitive  in  many 
directions.  These  men,  by  the  very  development  of 
their  nervous  constitutions,  would  become  the  social 
if  not  the  practical  leaders  of  their  class ;  high-spirited, 
and  with  domineering  ideas  and  scheming  ambitions, 
they  would  set  the  fashion  to  all  their  less  nervously 
developed  fellows.  Freed  from  the  exacting  conditions 
of  a  practical  life,  they  would  inevitably  fly  off  on  tan- 
gents more  or  less  impractical,  visionary. 

If,  therefore,  this  trait  is  more  marked  in  Japanese 
character  than  in  that  of  many  other  nations,  it  may 
be  easily  traced  to  the  social  order  that  has  ruled  this 
land  "  from  time  immemorial."  More  than  any  other 
of  her  mental  characteristics,  impractical  visionariness 
may  be  traced  to  the  development  of  the  nervous  organ- 
ization at  the  expense  of  the  muscular.  This  character- 
istic accordingly  may  be  said  to  be  more  inherently  a 
race  characteristic  than  many  others  that  have  been 
mentioned.  Yet  we  should  remember  that  the  samurai 
constitute  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  people.  Ac- 
cording to  recent  statistics  (1895)  the  entire  class  to-day 
numbers  but  2,050,000,  while  the  common  people 
number  over  40,000,000.  It  is,  furthermore,  to  be  re- 
membered that  not  all  the  descendants  of  the  samurai 
are  thus  nervously  organized.  Large  numbers  have  a 
splendid  physical  endowment,  with  no  trace  of  abnormal 
nervous  development.  Whilt^he_old_f£udaL  order,  with 
its  constant  carrying ^fsyyoras^  and  the  giving  of  honor 
to  the  most  impetuous,  naturally  tended  to  push  the 
most  high-strung  individuals  into  the  forefront  and  to 
set  them  up  as  models  for  the  imitation  of  the  young,  J 
the  social  order  now  regnant  in  Japan  faces  in  the 
other  direction.  Such  visionary  men  are  increasingly 
relegated  to  the  rear.  Their  approach  to  insanity  is 
recognized  and  condemned.  Even  this  trait  of  char- 
acter, therefore,  which  seems  to  be  rooted  in  brain  and 
nerve  structure  is,  nevertheless,  more  subject  to  the 
prevailing  social  order  than  would  at  first  seem  possible. 


IMAGINATION  245 

Its  rise  we  have  seen  was  due  to  that  order,  and  the  set- 
ting aside  of  these  characteristics  as  ideals  at  least,  and 
thus  the  bringing  into  prominence  of  more  normal  and 
healthy  ideals,  is  due  to  the  coming  in  of  a  new  order. 

Japanese  prosaic  matter-of-factness  may  similarly  be 
shown  to  have  intimate  relations  to  the  nature  of  the 
social  order.  Oppressive  military  feudalism,  keeping 
|the  vast  majority  of  the  people  in  practical  bondage, 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual,  would  necessarily 
render  their  lives  and  thoughts  narrow  in  range  and 
spiritless  in  nature.  Such  a  system  crushes  out  hope. 
From  sunrise  to  sunset,  ''  ncmbyaku  nenju,"  "  for  a  hun- 
dred years  and  through  all  the  year,"  the  humdrum 
duties  of  daily  life  were  the  only  psychic  stimuli  of  the 
absolutely  uneducated  masses.  Without  ambition, 
without  self-respect,  without  education  or  any  stimulus 
for  the  higher  mental  life,  what  possible  manifestation 
of  the  higher  powers  of  the  mind  could  be  expected? 
Should  some  "  sport  "  appear  by  chance,  it  could  not 
long  escape  the  sword  of  domineering  samurai.  Even 
though  originally  possessing  some  degree  of  imagina- 
tion, cringing  fear  of  military  masters,  with  the  con- 
tinuous elimination  by  ruthless  slaughter  of  the  more 
idealizing,  less  submissive,  and  more  self-assertive  in- 
dividuals of  the  non-military  classes,  would  finally 
produce  a  dull,  imitative,  unimaginative,  and  matter- 
of-fact  class  such  as  we  find  in  the  hereditary  laboring 
and  merchant  classes. 

Furthermore,  Japanese  civilization,  like  that  of  the 
entire  Orient,  with  its  highly  communalized  social 
order,  is  an  expression  of  passive  submission  to  superior 
authority.  Although  an  incomplete  characterization, 
there  is  still  much  truth  in  saying  that  the  Orient  is  an 
expression  of  Fate,  the  Occident  of  Freedom.  We  have 
seen  that  a  better  contrasted  characterization  is  found 
in  the  terms  communal  and  individual.  The  Orient 
has  known  nothing  of  individualism.  It  has  not  valued 
the  individual  nor  sought  his  elevation  and  freedom. 
In  every  way,  on  the  contrary,  it  has  repressed  and 
opposed  him.  The  high  development  of  the  individual 
culminating  in  powerful  personality  has  been  an  excep- 


246      EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

tional  occurrence,  due  to  special  circumstances.  A 
communal  social  order,  often  repressing  and  invariably 
failing  to  evoke  the  higher  human  faculties,  must  ex- 
press its  real  nature  in  the  language,  literature,  and 
customs  of  the  people.  Thus  in  our  chapter  on  the 
Esthetic  Characteristics  of  the  Japanese*  we  saw  how 
the  higher  forms  of  literature  were  dependent  on  the 
development  of  manhood  and  on  a  realization  of  his 
nature.  A  communal  social  order  despising,  or  at  least 
ignoring  the  individual,  cannot  produce  the  highest 
forms  of  literature  or  art,  because  it  does  not  possess 
the  highest  forms  of  psychic  development.  Take  from 
Western  life  all  that  rests  on  or  springs  from  the  prin- 
ciples of  individual  worth,  freedom,  and  immortality, 
and  how  much  of  value  or  sublimity  will  remain?  The 
absence  from  Japanese  literature  and  language  of  the 
higher  forms  of  fancy,  metaphor,  and  personification  on 
the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  the  presence  of  wide- 
spread prosaic  matter-of-factness,  are  thus  intimately 
related  to  the  communal  nature  of  Japan's  long  domi- 
nant social  order. 

Similarly,  in  regard  to  the  constructive  imagination, 
whose  conspicuous  lack  in  Japan  is  universally  asserted 
by  foreign  critics,  we  reply  first  that  the  assertion  is  an 
exaggeration,  and  secondly,  that  so  far  as  it  is  fact,  it 
is  intimately  related  to  the  social  order.  In  our  dis- 
cussions concerning  Japanese  Intellectuality  and 
Philosophical  Ability,t  we  saw  how  intimate  a  relation 
exists  between  the  social  order,  particularly  as  ex- 
pressed in  its  educational  system,  and  the  development 
of  the  higher  mental  faculties.  Now  a  moment's  reflec- 
tion will  show  how  the  constructive  imagination,  be- 
longing as  it  does  to  the  higher  faculties,  was  sup- 
pressed by  the  system  of  mechanical  and  S4.iporfioinl 
education  required  by  the  social  order.  Religion 
apotheosized  ancestral  knowledge  and  customs,  thus 
effectively  condemning  all  conscious  use  of  this  faculty. 
So  far  as  it  was  used,  it  was  under  the  guise  of  reviving 
old  knowledge  or  of  expounding  it  more  completely. 

*  Cliaptcr  XV. 

I  Cluipters  xix.  and  xx. 


IMAGINATION 


247 


This,  however,  has  been  the  experience  of  every  race 
in  certain  stages  of  its  development.  Such  periods  have 
been  conspicuously  deficient  in  powerful  literature, 
progressive  science,  penetrating  philosophy,  or  develop- 
ing political  life.  When  a  nation  has  once  entered  such 
a  social  order  it  becomes  stagnant,  its  further  develop- 
ment is  arrested.  The  activity  of  the  higher  faculties 
of  the  mind  are  in  abeyance,  but  not  destroyed.  It 
needs  the  electric  shock  of  contact  and  conflict  with 
foreign  races  to  startle  the  race  out  of  its  fatal  repose 
and  start  it  on  new  lines  of  progress  by  demanding,  on 
pain  of  death,  or  at  least  of  racial  subordination,  the 
introduction  of  new  elements  into  its  social  order  by  a 
renewed  exercise  of  the  constructive  imagination.  For 
without  such  action  of  the  constructive  imagination  a 
radical  and  voluntary  modification  of  the  dominant 
social  order  is  impossible. 

Old  Japan  experienced  this  electric  shock  and  New 
Japan  is  the  result.  She  is  thus  a  living  witness  to  the 
inaccuracy  of  those  sweeping  generalizations  as  to  her 
inherent  deficiency  of  constructive  imagination. 

It  is  by  no  means  our  contention  that  Japanese  imag- 
ination is  now  as  widely  and  profoundly  exercised  as 
that  of  the  leading  Western  nations.  We  merely  con- 
tend that  the  exercise  of  this  mental  faculty  is  intimately 
related  to  the  nature  of  the  whole  social  order;  that 
under  certain  circumstances  this  important  faculty  may 
be  so  suppressed  as  to  give  the  impression  to  superficial 
observers  of  entire  absence,  and  that  with  a  new  en- 
vironment necessitating  a  new  social  order,  this  faculty 
may  again  be  brought  into  activity. 

The  inevitable  conclusion  of  the  above  line  of  thought 
is  that  the  activity  and  the  manifestation  of  the  higher 
faculties  is  so  intimately  related  to  the  nature  of  the 
social  order  as  to  prevent  our  attributing  any  particular 
mental  characteristics  to  a  race  as  its  inherent  and  un- 
changeable nature.  The  psychic  characteristics  of  a 
race  at  any  given  time  are  the  product  of  the  inherited 
social  order.  To  transform  those  characteristics 
changes  in  the  social  order,  introduced  either  from  with- 
out, or  through   individuals  within  the  race,  are  alone 


248        EVOLUTION   OF   THE  JAPANESE 

needful.  This  completes  our  specific  study  of  the  in- 
tellectual characteristics  of  the  Japanese,  It  may  seem, 
as  it  undoubtedly  is,  quite  fragmentary.  But  we  have 
purposely  omitted  all  reference  to  those  characteristics 
which  the  Japanese  admittedly  have  in  common  with 
other  races.  We  have  attempted  the  consideration  of 
only  the  more  outstanding  characteristics  by  which  they 
seem  to  be  dififerentiated  from  other  races.  We  have 
attempted  to  show  that  in  so  far  as  they  are  different, 
the  difference  is  due  not  to  inherent  psychic  nature 
transmitted  by  organic  heredity,  but  to  the  nature  of 
the  social  order,  transmitted  by  social  heredity. 


XXII 
MORAL  IDEALS 

EVEN  a  slight  study  of  Japanese  history  suffices  to 
show  that  the  faculty  of  moral  discrimination  was 
highly  developed  in  certain  directions.  In  what  land 
have  the  ideal  and  practice  of  loyalty  been  higher?  The 
heroes  most  lauded  by  the  Japanese  to-day  are  those 
who  have  proved  their  loyalty  by  the  sacrifice  of  their 
lives.  When  Masashige  Kusunoki  waged  a  hopeless 
war  on  behalf  of  one  branch  of  the  then  divided  dynasty, 
and  finally  preferred  to  die  by  his  own  hand  rather  than 
endure  the  sight  of  a  victorious  rebel,  he  is  considered 
to  have  exhibited  the  highest  possible  evidence  of 
devoted  loyalty.  One  often  hears  his  name  in  the 
sermons  of  Christian  preachers  as  a  model  worthy  of 
all  honor.  The  patriots  of  the  period  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  Meiji  era,  known  as  the  "  Kinnoka,"  some 
of  whom  lost  their  lives  because  of  their  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  their  then  impotent  Emperor,  are  accorded 
the  highest  honor  the  nation  can  give. 

The  teachings  of  the  Japanese  concerning  the  rela- 
tions that  should  exist  between  parents  and  children, 
and,  in  multitudes  of  instances,  their  actual  conduct  also, 
can  hardly  be  excelled.  We  can  assert  that  they  have  a 
keen  moral  faculty,  however  further  study  may  compel 
us  to  pronounce  its  development  and  manifestations  to 
be  unbalanced. 

Better,  however,  than  generalizations  as  to  the  ethical 
ideals  of  Japan,  past  and  present,  are  actual  quotations 
from  her  moral  teachers.  The  following  passages  are 
taken  from  "  A  Japanese  Philosopher,"  by  Dr.  Geo.  W. 
Knox,  the  larger  part  of  the  volume  consisting  of  a 
translation  of  one  of  the  works  of  Muro  Kyuso — who 
lived  from  1658  to  1734.  It  was  during  his  life  that 
249 


250        EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  famous  forty-seven  ronin  performed  their  exploit, 
and  Kyu-so  gave  them  the  name  by  which  they  are  still 
remembered,  Gi-shi,  the  "  Righteous  Samurai,"  The 
purpose  of  the  work  is  the  defense  of  the  Confucian 
faith  and  practice,  as  interpreted  by  Tei-shu,  the  phi- 
losopher of  China  whom  Japan  delighted  to  honor.  It 
discusses  among  other  things  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  ethics,  politics,  and  religion.  Dr.  Knox  has 
done  all  earnest  Western  students  of  Japanese  ethical 
and  religious  ideas  an  inestimable  service  in  the  pro- 
duction of  this  work  in  English. 

"  The  '  Way  '  of  Heaven  and  Earth  is  the  '  Way  '  of 
Gyo  and  Shun  [semi-mythical  rulers  of  ancient  China 
idealized  by  Confucius]  ;  the  '  Way  '  of  Gyo  and  Shun  is 
the  '  Way '  of  Confucius  and  Mencius,  and  the  '  Way ' 
of  Confucius  and  Mencius  is  the  '  Way '  of  Tei-Shu. 
Forsaking  Tei-Shu,  we  cannot  find  Confucius  and 
Menicius ;  forsaking  Confucius  and  Mencius,  we  cannot 
find  Gyo  and  Shun ;  and  forsaking  Gyo  and  Shun,  we 
cannot  find  the  '  Way  '  of  Heaven  and  Earth.  Do  not 
trust  implicitly  an  aged  scholar ;  but  this  I  know,  and 
therefore  I  speak.  If  I  say  that  which  is  false,  may  I 
be  instantly  punished  by  Heaven  and  Earth."  * 

''  Recently  I  was  astounded  at  the  words  of  a  phi- 
losopher :  '  The  "  Way  "  comes  not  from  Heaven,'  he 
said,  '  it  was  invented  by  the  sages.  Nor  is  it  in  accord 
with  nature ;  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  aesthetics  and  orna- 
ment. Of  the  five  relations,  only  the  conjugal  is 
natural,  while  loyalty,  filial  obedience,  and  the  rest  were 
invented  by  the  sages,  and  have  been  maintained  by 
their  authority  ever  since.'  Surely,  among  all  heresies 
from  ancient  days  until  now,  none  has  been  so  mon- 
strous as  this."  t 

"  Kujuro,  a  lad  of  fifteen  years,  quarreled  with  a 
neighbor's  son  over  a  game  of  go,  lost  his  self-control, 
and  before  he  could  be  seized,  drew  his  sword  and  cut 
the  boy  down.  While  the  wounded  boy  was  under  the 
surgeon's  care,  Kujuro  was  in  custody,  but  he  showed 
no  fear,  and  his  words  and  acts  were  calm  beyond  his 
*  P.  29.  f  P.  36. 


MORAL    IDEALS  251 

years.  After  some  days  the  boy  died,  and  Kujuro  was 
condemned  to  hara-kiri.  The  officers  in  charge  gave 
him  a  farewell  feast  the  night  before  he  died.  He 
calmly  wrote  to  his  mother,  took  ceremonious  farewell 
of  his  keeper  and  all  in  the  house,  and  then  said  to 
the  guests:  '  I  regret  to  leave  you  all,  and  should  like 
to  stay  and  talk  till  daybreak ;  but  I  must  not  be  sleepy 
when  I  commit  hara-kiri  to-morrow,  so  I'll  go  to  bed 
at  once.  Do  you  stay  at  your  ease  and  drink  the  wine.' 
So  he  went  to  his  room  and  fell  asleep,  all  being  filled 
with  admiration  as  they  heard  him  snore.  On  the 
morrow  he  rose  early,  bathed  and  dressed  himself  with 
care,  made  all  his  preparations  with  perfect  calmness, 
and  then,  quiet  and  composed,  killed  himself.  No  old,, 
trained,  self-possessed  samurai  could  have  excelled  him. 
No  one  who  saw  it  could  speak  of  it  for  years  without 
tears.  ...  I  have  told  you  this  that  Kujuro  may 
be  remembered.  It  would  be  shameful  were  it 
to  be  forgotten  that  so  young  a  boy  performed  such  a 
deed."  * 

"  We  are  not  to  cease  obeying  for  the  sake  of  study, 
nor  must  we  establish  the  laws  before  we  begin  to 
obey.  In  obedience  we  are  to  establish  its  rightness 
and  wrongness."  f 

"  We  learn  loyalty  and  obedience  as  we  are  loyal  and 
obedient.  To-day  I  know  yesterday's  short-comings, 
and  to-morrow  I  shall  know  to-day's.  ...  In  our 
occupations  we  learn  whether  conduct  conforms  to  right 
and  so  advance  in  the  truth  by  practice."  $ 

"  Besides  a  few  works  on  history,  like  the  Sankyo 
Ega  Monogatari,  which  record  facts,  there  are  no  books 
worth  reading  in  our  literature.  For  the  most  part 
they  are  sweet  stories  of  the  Buddhas,  of  which  one  soon 
wearies.  But  the  evil  is  traditional,  long-continued,  and 
beyond  remedy.  And  other  books  are  full  of  lust,  not 
even  to  be  mentioned,  like  the  Genji  Monogatari,  which 
should  never  be  shown  to  a  woman  or  a  young  man. 
Such  books  lead  to  vice.  Our  nobles  call  the  Genji 
Monogatari  a  national  treasure,  why,  I  do  not  know,  un- 
less it  is  that  they  are  intoxicated  with  its  style.     That  is 

*  Pp.  42,  43.  tP.45.  1:P-6i. 


252       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

like  plucking  the  spring  blossom  unmindful  of  the  au- 
tumn's fruit.  The  book  is  full  of  adulteries  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  Seeing  the  right,  ourselves  should  become 
good,  seeing  the  wrong,  we  should  reprove  ourselves. 
The  Genji  Monogatari,  Chokonka,  and  Seishoki  are  of  a 
class,  vile,  mean,  comparable  to  the  books  of  the  sages  as 
charcoal  to  ice,  as  the  stench  of  decay  to  the  perfume 
of  flowers."  * 

"  To  the  samurai,  first  of  all  is  righteousness ;  next 
life,  then  silver  and  gold.  These  last  are  of  value,  but 
some  put  them  in  the  place  of  righteousness.  But  to 
the  samurai  even  life  is  as  dirt  compared  to  righteous- 
ness. Until  the  middle  part  of  the  middle  ages  customs 
were  comparatively  pure,  though  not  really  righteous! 
Corruption  has  come  only  during  this  period  of  govern- 
ment by  the  samurai.  A  maid  servant  in  China  was 
made  ill  with  astonishment  when  she  saw  her  mistress, 
soroban  (abacus)  in  hand,  arguing  prices  and  values. 
So  was  it  once  with  the  samurai.  They  knew  nothing 
of  trade,  were  economical  and  content."  f 

"  Even  in  the  days  of  my  youth,  young  folks  never 
mentioned  the  price  of  anything;  and  their  faces  red- 
dened if  the  talk  was  of  women.  Their  joy  was  in  talk 
of  battles  and  plans  for  war.  And  they  studied  how 
parents  and  lords  should  be  obeyed,  and  the  dutv  of 
samurai.  But  nowadays  the  young  men  talk  of  loss 
and  gain,  of  dancing  girls  and  harlots  and  gross  pleas- 
ures. It  is  a  complete  change  from  fifty  or  sixty  years 
ago.  .  .  .  Said  Aochi  to  his  son :  '  There  is  such 
a  thing  as  trade.  See  that  you  know  nothing  of  it.  In 
trade  the  profit  should  always  go  to  the  other  side.  .  .  . 
To  be  proud  of  buying  high-priced  articles  cheap  is  the 
good  fortune  of  merchants,  but  should  be  unknown  to 
samurai.  Let  it  not  be  even  so  much  as  mentioned.  .  .  . 
Samurai  must  have  a  care  of  their  words,  and  are  not 
to  speak  of  avarice,  cowardice,  or  lust.'  "  $ 

A   point    of   considerable    interest   to   the    student    of 
Japanese  ethical  ideals  is  the  fact  that  the  laws  of  Old 
Japan  combined  legal  and  moral  maxims.     Loyalty  and 
*  P.  I20.  f  P.  129.  X  P-  130. 


MORAL   IDEALS  253 

morality  were  conceived  as  inseparable.  leyasu  (ab- 
dicated in  1605,  and  died  in  1616),  the  founder  of  the  To- 
kugawa  Shogunate,  left  a  body  of  laws  to  his  successors  as 
his  last  will,  in  accordance  with  which  they  should  rule 
the  land.  These  laws  were  not  made  public,  but  were 
kept  strictly  for  the  guidance  of  the  rulers.  They  are 
known  as  the  Testament  or  "  Honorable  Will  "  of  leyasu, 
and  consist  of  one  hundred  rules.  It  will  serve  our 
purpose  here  to  quote  some  of  those  that  refer  to  the 
moral  ideal. 

"  No  one  is  to  act  simply  for  the  gratification  of  his 
own  desires,  but  he  is  to  strive  to  do  what  may  be 
opposed  to  his  desires,  i.  c,  to  exercise  self-control,  in 
order  that  everyone  may  be  ready  for  whatever  he  may 
be  called  upon  by  his  superiors  to  do." 

"  The  aged,  whether  widowers  or  widows,  and  or- 
phans, and  persons  without  relations,  every  one  should 
assist  with  kindness  and  liberality;  for  justice  to  these 
four  is  the  root  of  good  government." 

''Respect  the  gods  [or  God],  keep  the  heart  pure, 
and  be  diligent  in  business  during  the  whole  life." 

"  When  I  was  young  I  determined  to  fight  and  punish 
all  my  own  and  my  ancestors'  enemies,  and  I  did  punish 
them;  but  afterwards,  by  deep  consideration,  I  found 
that  the  way  of  heaven  was  to  help  the  people,  and  not 
to  punish  them.  Let  my  successors  follow  out  this 
policy,  or  they  are  not  of  my  line.  In  this  lies  the 
strength  of  the  nation." 

"  To  insure  the  Empire  peace,  the  foundation  must 
be  laid  in  the  ways  of  holiness  and  religion,  and  if  men 
think  they  can  be  educated,  and  will  not  remember  this, 
it  is  as  if  a  man  were  to  go  to  a  forest  to  catch  fish,  or 
thought  he  could  draw  water  out  of  fire.  They  must 
follow  the  ways  of  holiness." 

"  Japan  is  the  country  of  the  gods  [or  God — '  Shin- 
koku'].  Therefore,  we  have  among  us  Confucianism, 
Buddhism,  and  Shintoism,  and  other  sects.  If  we  leave 
our  gods  [or  God]  it  is  like  refusing  the  wages  of  our 
master  and  taking  them  from  another." 

"  In  regard  to  dancing    women,  prostitutes,  brothels, 


254        EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

night  work,  and  all  other  improper  employments,  all 
these  are  like  caterpillars  or  locusts  in  the  country. 
Good  men  and  writers  in  all  times  have  written  against 
them." 

"  It  is  said  that  the  Mikado,  looking  down  on  his 
people,  loves  them  as  a  mother  does  her  children.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  me  and  my  government.  This 
benevolence  of  mind  is  called  Jin.  This  Jin  may  be 
said  to  consist  of  five  parts;  these  are  humanity, 
integrity,  courtesy,  wisdom,  and  truth.  My  mode 
of  government  is  according  to  the  way  of  heaven. 
This  I  have  done  to  show  that  I  am  impartial,  awd  am 
not  assisting  my  own  relatives  and  friends  only."  "^ 

These  quotations  are  perhaps  sufficient,  though  one 
more  from  a  recent  writer  has  a  peculiar  interest  of  its 
own,  from  the  fact  that  the  purpose  of  the  book  from 
which  the  quotation  is  taken  was  the  destruction  of  the 
tendencies  toward  approval  of  Western  thought.  It 
was  published  in  1857.  The  writer,  Junzo  Ohashi,  felt 
himself  to  be  a  witness  for  truth  and  righteousness,  and, 
in  the  spirit  of  the  doctrine  he  professed,  sealed  his 
faith  with  a  martyr's  suffering  and  death,  dying  (in 
August,  1868)  from  the  effect  of  repeated  examination 
by  torture  for  a  supposed  crime,  innocence  of  which  he 
maintained  to  the  end.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
two  of  his  granddaughters,  "  with  the  physics_  and  as- 
tronomy of  the  West,  have  accepted  its  religion." 

"  The  West  knows  not  the  '  Ri  'f  of  the  virtues  of 
the  heart  which  are  in  all  men  unchangeably  the  same. 
Nor  does  it  know  that  the  body  is  the  organ  of  the 
virtues,  however  careful  its  analysis  of  the  body  may 
be.  The  adherents  of  the  Western  Philosophy  indeed 
study  carefully  the  outward  appearances,  but  the\'  have 
no  right  to  steal  the  honored  name  of  natural  phi- 
losophy. As  when  '  l\i  "  is  destroyed.  *  Ri  '  too  dis- 
ajipears,  so,  with  their  analysis  of  '  Ki.*  they  destroy 
'  Ri,'   and    thus    this   learning  brings   benevolence    and 

*  Dickenson's  "  Japan,"  chapter  vii. 

\  C/.  chapter  x.xi. 


MORAL    IDEALS  255 

righteousness  and  loyalty  and  truth  to  naught.  Among 
the  Westerners  who  from  of  old  have  studied  details 
minutely,  I  have  not  heard  of  one  who  was  zealous  for 
the  Great  Way,  for  benevolence,  righteousness,  loyalty, 
and  truth,  and  who  opposed  the  absurdities  of  the  Lord 
of  Heaven  [God].'*  'Let  then  the  child  make  its  par- 
ent, Heaven;  the  retainer,  his  lord;  the  wife,  her 
husband;  and  let  each  give  up  life  for  righteousness. 
Thus  will  each  serve  Heaven.  But  if  we  exalt  Heaven 
above  parent  or  lord,  we  shall  come  to  think  that  we 
can  serve  it  though  they  be  disobeyed,  and  like  wolf 
or  tiger  shall  rejoice  to  kill  them.  To  such  fearful  end 
does  the  Western  learning  lead."  f 

The  foregoing  quotations  reveal  the  exalted  nature 
of  the  ideals  held  by  at  least  some  of  the  leaders  of 
ethical  thought  in  Japan.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  moral 
ideals  characterizing  the  Japanese  during  their  entire 
historical  period  have  been  conspicuously  communal. 
The  feudal  structure  of  society  has  determined  the 
peculiar  character  of  the  moral  ideal.  Loyalty  took 
first  rank  in  the  moral  scale;  the  subordination  of  the 
inferior  to  the  superior  has  come  next,  including  un- 
questioning obedience  of  children  to  parents,  and  of 
wife  to  husband.  The  virtues  of  a  military  people  have 
been  praised  and  often  gloriously  exemplified.  The 
possession  of  these  various  ideals  and  their  attainment 
in  such  high  degree  have  given  the  nation  its  cohesive- 
ness.  They  make  the  people  a  unit.  The  feudal  train- 
ing under  local  daimyos  was  fitting  the  people  for  the, 
larger  life  among  the  nations  of  t'he  world  on  which 
they  are  now  entering.  Especially  is  their  sense  of 
loyalty,  as  exhibited  toward  the  Emperor,  serving  them 
well  in  this  period  of  transition  from  Oriental  to  Occi- 
dental social  ideals. 

Let  us  now  examine  some  defective  moral  standards 
and  observe  their  origin  in  the  social  order.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  ideal  of  truthfulness.  Every  Occidental 
remarks  on  the  untruthfulness  of  the  Japanese.  Lies 
are  told  without  the  slightest  apparent  compunction; 
*  P.  163.  f  P.  169. 


256        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

and  when  confronted  with  the  charge  of  lying,  the  cul- 
prit often  seems  to  feel  little  sense  of  guilt.  This  trait 
of  character  was  noted  repeatedly  by  the  early 
negotiators  with  Japan.  Townsend  Harris  and  Sir 
Rutherford  Alcock  made  frequent  mention  of  it.  When 
we  inquire  as  to  the  moral  ideal  and  actual  instruction 
concerning  truthfulness,  we  are  amazed  to  find  how 
inadequate  it  was.  The  inadequacy  of  the  teaching, 
however,  was  not  the  primal  cause  of  the  characteristic. 
There  is  a  far  deeper  explanation,  yet  very  simple, 
namely,  the  nature  of  the  social  order.  The  old  social 
order  was  feudal,  and  not  industrial  or  commercial. 
History  shows  that  industrial  and  commercial  nations 
develop  the  virtue  of  truthfulness  far  in  advance  of 
miHtary  nations.  For  these  virtues  are  essential  to 
them;  without  them  they  could  not  long  continue  to 
prosper. 

So  in  regard  to  all  the  aspects  of  business  moralitv, 
it  must  be  admitted  that,  from  the  Occidental  stand- 
point, Old  Japan  was  very  deficient.  But  it  must  also 
be  stated  that  new  ideals  are  rapidly  forming.  Buying 
and  selling  with  a  view  to  making' profit,  though' not 
unknown  in  Old  Japan,  was  carried  on  by  a  despised 
section  of  the  community.  Compared  with  the  pres- 
ent, the  commercial  community  of  feudal  times  was 
mean  and  small.  Let  us  note  somewhat  in  detail  the 
attitude  of  the  samurai  toward  the  trader  in  olden 
times,  and  the  ideals  they  reveal. 

The  pursuit  of  business  was  considered  necessarily 
degrading,  for  he  who  handled  money  was  supposed 
to  be  covetous.  The  taking  of  profit  was  thought  to 
be  ignoble,  if  not  deceitful.  They  who  condescended 
to  such  an  occupation  were  accordingly  despised  and 
condemned  to  the  lowest  place  in  the  social  scale.  These 
ideas  doubtless  helped  to  make  business  degrading; 
traders  were  doubtless  sordid  and  covetous  and  deceit- 
ful. In  the  presence  of  the  samurai  they  were  required 
to  take  the  most  abject  postures.  In  addressing  him. 
they  must  never  stand,  but  nuist  touch  the  ground  with 
their  foreheads ;  while  talking  with  him  they  must  re- 
main   with    their    hands    on    the    ground.     Even    the 


MORAL    IDEALS  257 

children  of  samurai  always  assumed  the  lordly  attitude 
toward  tradesmen.  The  sons  of  tradesmen  might  not 
venture  into  a  quarrel  with  the  sons  of  samurai,  for  the 
armed  children  of  the  samurai  were  at  liberty  to  cut 
down  and  kill  the  children  of  the  despicable  merchant, 
should  they  insult  or  even  oppose  them. 

All  this,,  however,  has  passed  away.  Commerce  is 
now  honored ;  trade  and  manufacture  are  recognized  not 
only  as  laudable,  but  as  the  only  hope  of  Japan  for  the 
future.  The  new  social  order  is  industrial  and  com- 
mercial. The  entire  body  of  the  former  samurai,  now 
no  longer  maintaining  their  distinctive  name,  are  en- 
gaged in  some  form  of  business.  Japan  is  to-day  a 
nation  of  traders  and  farmers.  Accompanying  the 
changes  in  the  social  order,  new  standards  as  to  honesty 
and  business  integrity  are  being  formulated  and  en- 
forced.* 

*  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  contempt  of  Old  Japan  for 
trade,  and  the  feeling  that  interest  and  profit  by  commerce  were 
in  their  nature  immoral,  are  in  close  accord  with  the  old  Greek 
and  Jewish  ideas  regarding  property  profits  and  interest.  Aris- 
totle held,  for  instance,  that  only  the  gains  of  agriculture,  of 
fishing,  and  of  hunting  are  natural  gains.  Plato,  in  the  Laws, 
forbids  the  taking  of  interest.  Cato  says  that  lending  money  on 
interest  is  dishonorable,  is  as  bad  as  murder.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment, likewise,  forbids  the  taking  of  interest  from  a  Jew.  The 
reason  for  this  universal  feeling  of  antiquity,  both  Oriental  and 
Occidental,  lies  in  the  fact  that  trade  and  money  were  not  yet  es- 
sential parts  of  the  social  order.  Positive  production,  such  as  hunt- 
ing and  farming,  seemed  the  natural  method  of  making  a  living, 
while  trade  seemed  unnatural — living  upon  the  labor  of  others. 
That  Japan  ranked  the  farmer  higher  in  the  social  scale  than 
the  merchant  is,  thus,  natural.  In  moral  character,  too,  it  is 
altogether  probable  that  they  were  much  higher. 


XXIII 
MORAL  IDEALS 

(Continued) 

AN  Occidental  is  invariably  filled  with  astonishment 
ZA  on  learning  that  a  human  being,  as  such,  had  no 
JL  A> value  in  Old  Japan.  The  explanation  lies  chiefly 
in  the  fact  that  the  social  order  did  not  rest  on  the  in- 
herent worth  of  the  individual.  As  in  all  primitive 
lands  and  times,  the  individual  was  as  nothing  compared 
to  the  family  and  the  tribe.  As  time  went  on,  this  prin- 
ciple took  the  form  of  the  supreme  worth  of  the  higher 
classes  in  society.  Hence  arose  the  liberty  allowed 
the  samurai  of  cutting  down,  in  cold  blood,  a  beggar,  a 
merchant,  or  a  farmer  on  the  slightest  provocation,  or 
simply  for  the  purpose  of  testing  his  sword. 

Japanese  social  and  religious  philosophy  had  not  yet 
discovered  that  the  individual  is  of  infinite  worth  in  him- 
self, apart  from  all  considerations  of  his  rank  in  society. 
As  we  have  seen,  the  absence  of  this  idea  from  Japanese 
civilization  resulted  in  various  momentous  consequences, 
of  which  the  frequency  of  murder  and  suicide  is  but 
one. 

Another,  and  this  constitutes  one  of  the  most  striking 
differences  between  the  moral  ideals  of  the  East  and  the 
West,  is  the  low  estimate  put  upon  the  inherent  nature 
and  value  of  woman,  by  which  was  determined  her  social 
position  and  the  moral  relations  of  the  sexes.  Japan 
seems  to  have  suffered  somewhat  in  this  respect  from  her 
acceptance  of  Hindu  philosophy.  For  there  seems  to 
be  considerable  unanimity  among  historians  that  in 
primitive  times  in  Japan  there  prevailed  a  much  larger 
liberty,  and  consequently  a  much  higher  regard,  for 
■    258 


I 


MORAL    IDEALS  259 

woman  than  in  later  ages  after  Buddhism  became  power- 
ful. With  regard,  however,  to  that  earlier  period  of 
over  a  thousand  years  ago,  it  is  of  little  use  to  speculate. 
I  cannot  escape  the  feeling,  however,  that  the  condition 
of  woman  then  has  been  unconsciously  idealized,  in 
order  to  make  a  better  showing  in  comparison  with  the 
customs  of  Western  lands.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the 
notions  and  ideals  presented  by  Buddhism  in  regard  to 
woman  are  clear,  and  clearly  degrading.  She  is  the 
source  of  temptation  and  sin;  she  is  essentially  inferior 
to  man  in  every  respect.  Before  she  may  hope  to  enter 
Nirvana  she  must  be  born  again  as  man.  How  widely 
these  extreme  views  of  woman  have  found  acceptance  in 
Japan,  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  state.  It  is  my  impres- 
sion, however,  that  they  never  received  as  full  acceptance 
here  as  in  India.  Nevertheless,  as  has  already  been 
shown,*  the  ideals  of  what  a  woman  should  do  and  be 
make  it  clear  that  her  social  position  for  centuries  has 
been  relatively  low;  as  wife  she  is  a  domestic  rather  than 
a  helpmeet.  The  "  three  obediences,"  to  parents,  to 
husband,  to  son,  set  forth  the  ideal,  although,  without 
doubt,  the  strict  application  of  the  third,  obedience  to 
one's  son  after  he  becomes  the  head  of  the  household,  is 
relatively  rare. 

What  especially  strikes  the  notice  of  the  Occidental  is 
the  slight  amount  of  social  intercourse  that  prevails  to- 
day between  men  and  women.  Whenever  women  enter 
into  the  social  pleasures  of  men,  they  do  so  as  profes- 
sional singers  and  dancers,  they  being  mere  girls  and 
unmarried  young  women;  this  social  intercourse  is  all 
but  invariably  accompanied  with  wine-drinking,  even  if  it 
does  not  proceed  to  further  licentiousness.  The  state- 
ment that  woman  is  man's  plaything  has  been  often 
heard  in  Japan.  Confucian  no  less  than  Buddhistic 
ethics  must  bear  the  responsibility  for  putting  and  keep- 
ing woman  on  so  low  a  level.  Concubinage,  possibly 
introduced  from  China,  was  certainly  sanctioned  by  the 
Chinese  classics. 

The  Lei-ki  allows  an  Emperor  to  have  in  addition  to 
the  Empress  three  consorts,  nine  maids  of  high  rank, 
*  Cf.  chapter  ix.  p.  103. 


26o        EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

and  twenty-seven  maids  of  lower  rank,  all  of  whom  rank 
as  wives,  and,  beside  these,  eighty-one  other  females 
called  concubines.  Concubinage  and  polygamy,  being 
thus  sanctioned  by  the  classics,  became  an  established 
custom  in  Japan. 

The  explanation  for  this  ideal  and  practice  is  not  far 
to  seek.  It  rests  in  the  communal  character  of  the  social 
order.  The  family  was  the  social  unit  of  Japan.  No 
individual  member  was  of  worth  except  the  legal  head 
and  representative,  the  father.  A  striking  proof  of  the 
correctness  of  this  explanation  is  the  fact  that  even  the 
son  is  obeyed  by  the  father  in  case  he  has  become 
"  in  kio,"  *  that  is,  has  abdicated;  the  son  then  becomes 
the  authoritative  head.  The  ideals  regarding  woman 
then  were  not  unique ;  they  were  part  of  the  social  order, 
and  were  determined  by  the  principle  of  "  com- 
munalism  "  unregulated  by  the  principle  of  "'  individual- 
ism." Ideals  respecting  man  and  woman  were  equally 
affected.  So  long  as  man  is  not  valued  as  a  human 
being,  but  solely  according  to  his  accidental  position  in 
society,  woman  must  be  regarded  in  the  same  way.  She 
is  valued  first  as  a  begetter  of  offspring,  second  as  a  do- 
mestic. And  when  such  conceptions  prevail  as  to  her 
nature  and  function  in  society,  defective  ideals  as  to 
morality  in  the  narrower  sense  of  this  term,  leading  to 
and  justifying  concubinage,  easy  divorce,  and  general 
loose  morality  are  necessary  consequences. 

But  this  moral  or  immoral  ideal  is  by  no  means 
peculiar  to  Japan.  The  peculiarity  of  Japan  and  the 
entire  Orient  is  that  the  social  order  that  fostered  it 
lasted  so  long,  before  forces  arose  to  modify  it.  But,  as 
will  be  shown  later.f  the  great  problem  of  human  evolu- 
tion, after  securing  the  advantages  of  "  communalism." 
and  the  solidification  of  the  nation,  is  that  of  introducing 
the  principle  of  individualism  into  the  social  order.  In 
the  Orient  the  principle  of  communalism  gained  such 
headway  as  effectually  to  prevent  the  introduction  of 
this  new  principle.  There  is,  in  my  opinion,  no  prob- 
ability that  Japan,  while  maintaining  her  isolation,  would 
ever  have  succeeded  in  making  any  radical  change  in  hei 
*  Chaplcr  vi.  t  Chapter  .Kxix.  p.  339- 


MORAL    IDEALS  261 

social  order;  her  commtinalism  was  too  absolute.  She 
needed  the  introduction  of  a  new  stimulus  from  with- 
out. It  was  providential  that  this  stimulus  came  from 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  with  its  pronounced  principle  of 
"  individualism  "  wrought  out  so  completely  in  social 
order,  in  literature,  and  in  government.  Had  Russia  or 
Turkey  been  the  leading  influences  in  starting  Japan  on 
her  new  career,  it  is  more  than  doubtful  whether  she 
would  have  secured  the  principles  needful  for  her  health- 
ful moral  development. 

Justice  to  the  actual  ideals  and  life  of  Old  Japan  for- 
bids me  to  leave,  without  further  remark,  what  was  said 
above  regarding  the  ideals  of  morality  in  the  narrower 
significance  of  this  word.  Injunctions  that  women 
should  be  absolutely  chaste  were  frequent  and  stringent. 
Nothing  more  could  be  asked  in  the  line  of  explicit 
teaching  on  this  theme.  And,  furthermore,  I  am  per- 
suaded, after  considerable  inquiry,  that  in  Old  Japan  in 
the  interior  towns  and  villages,  away  from  the  center  of 
luxury  and  out  of  the  beaten  courses  of  travel,  there  was 
purity  of  moral  life  that  has  hardly  been  excelled  any- 
where. I  have  repeatedly  been  assured  that  if  a  youth 
of  either  sex  were  known  to  have  transgressed  the  law  of 
chastity,  he  or  she  would  at  once  be  ostracised;  and  that 
such  transgressions  were,  consequently,  exceedingly 
rare.  It  is  certainly  a  fact  that  in  the  vast  majority  of 
the  interior  towns  there  have  never,  until  recent  times. 
been  licensed  houses  of  prostitution.  Of  late  there  has 
been  a  marked  increase  of  dancing  and  singing  girls,  of 
whom  it  is  commonly  said  that  they  are  but  "  secret 
prostitutes."  These  may  to-day  be  found  in  almost 
every  town  and  village,  wherever  indeed  there  is  a  hotel. 
Public  as  w^ell  as  secret  prostitution  has  enormously 
increased  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years.* 

*  An  anonymous  writer,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  How  the 
Social  Evil  is  Regulated  in  Japan,"  gives  some  valuable  facts  on 
this  subject.  He  describes  the  early  history  of  the  "  Social 
Evil,"  and  the  various  classes  of  prostitutes.  He  distinguishes 
between  the  "jigoku"  (unlicensed  prostitutes),  the  "  shogi " 
(licensed  prostitutes),  and  the  "  geisha  "  (singing  and  dancing 
girls).  He  gives  translations  of  the  various  documents  in  actual 
use  at  present,  and  finally  attempts  to  estimate  the  number  of 


262       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

Thanks  to  Mr.  Miirpli3''s  consecrated  energy,  the  ap- 
palling legalized  and  hopeless  slavery  under  which  these 
two  classes  of  girls  exist  is  at  last  coming  to  light.  He 
has  shown,  by  several  test  cases,  that  although  the 
national  laws  are  good  to  look  at  they  are  powerless  be- 
cause set  aside  by  local  police  regulations  over  which 
the  courts  are  powerless !  In  September,  1900,  however, 
in  large  part  due  no  doubt  to  the  facts  made  public  by 
him,  and  backed  up  by  the  public  press,  and  such  leaders 
of  Japan's  progressive  elements  as  Shimada  Sabur,  the 
police  regulations  were  modified,  and  with  amazing  re- 
sults. Whereas,  previous  to  that  date,  the  average 
monthly  suicides  throughout  the  land  among  the  public 
prostitutes  were  between  forty  and  fifty,  during  the  two 
months  of  September  and  October  there  were  none!  In 
that  same  period,  out  of  about  five  thousand  prostitutes 
in  the  city  of  Tokyo,  492  had  fled  from  their  brothels 
and  declared  their  intentions  of  abandoning  the 
"  shameful  business,"  as  the  Japanese  laws  call  it,  and 
in  consequence  a  prominent  brothel  had  been  compelled 
to  stop  the  business!  We  are  only  in  the  first  flush  of 
this  new  reform  as  these  lines  are  written,  so  cannot  tell 
what  end  the  whole  movement  will  reach.  But  the  con- 
science of  the  nation  is  beginning  to  waken  on  this  mat- 
ter and  we  are  confident  it  will  never  tolerate  the  old 
slavery  of  the  past,  enforced  as  it  was  by  local  laws,  local 
courts,  so  that  girls  were  always  kept  in  debt,  and  when 

women  engaged  in  the  business.  The  method  of  reaching  his 
conclusions  does  not  commend  itself  to  the  present  writer  and 
his  results  seem  absurdly  wide  of  the  mark,  when  compared  witli 
more  carefully  gathered  figures.  The^-  are  hardly  worth  quot- 
ing, yet  they  serve  to  show  what  exaggerated  views  are  held  bv 
some  in  regard  to  the  numbers  of  prostitutes  in  Japan.  He  tells 
us  that  a  moderate  estimate  for  licensed  prostitutes  and  for  geislia 
is  500,000  each,  while  the  unlicensed  number  at  least  a  million, 
making  a  total  of  2,000.000  or  10  per  cent,  of  the  total  female 
population  of  Japan!  A  careful  statistical  inquiry  on  this  sub- 
ject has  been  recently  made  by  Rev.  U.  G.  Murphv.  His  figures 
were  chiefly  secured  from  provincial  officers.  According  to  these 
returns  the  number  of  licensed  prostitutes  is  5o,^f;3  and  of  danc- 
ing girls  is  30,386.  Mr.  Murphy's  figures  cannot  be  far  astray, 
and  furnish  us  something  of  a  basis  for  comparison  with  Euro- 
pean countries.  Statistics  regarding  unlicensed  prostitutes  are 
naturally  not  to  be  had. 


MORAL    IDEALS  263 

they  fled  were  seized  and  forced  back  to  the  brothels  in 
order  to  pay  their  debts! 

But  in  contrast  to  the  undoubted  ideal  of  Old  Japan 
in  regard  to  the  chastity  of  women,  must  be  set  the 
equally  undoubted  fact  that  the  sages  have  very  little 
to  say  on  the  subject  of  chastity  for  men.  Indeed  there 
is  no  word  in  the  Japanese  language  corresponding  to 
our  term  "  chastity  "  which  may  be  applied  equally  to 
men  and  women.  In  his  volume  entitled  "  Kokoro," 
Mr.  Hearn  charges  the  missionaries  with  the  assertion 
that  there  is  no  word  for  chastity  in  Japanese.  "  This," 
he  says,  "  is  true  in  the  same  sense  only  that  we  might 
say  that  there  is  no  word  for  chastity  in  the  English 
language,  because  such  words  as  honor,  virtue,  purity, 
chastity  have  been  adopted  into  English  from  other  lan- 
guages." *  I  doubt  if  any  missionary  has  made  such  a 
statement.  His  further  assertion,  that  "  the  word  most 
commonly  used  applies  to  both  sexes,"  would  have  more 
force,  if  Mr.  Hearn  had  stated  what  the  word  is.  His 
English  definition  of  the  term  has  not  enabled  me  to 
find  the  Japanese  equivalent,  although  I  have  discussed 
this  question  with  several  Japanese.  It  is  their  uniform 
confession  that  the  Japanese  language  is  defective  in  its 
terminology  on  this  topic,  the  word  with  which  one  may 
exhort  a  woman  to  be  chaste  being  inapplicable  to  a  man. 
The  assertion  of  the  missionaries  has  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  the  question  as  to  whether  the  terms  used  are 
pure  Japanese  or  imported  Chino- Japanese ;  nor  has  it 
any  reference  to  the  fact  that  the  actual  language  is  de- 
ficient in  abstract  terms.  It  is  simply  that  the  term  ap- 
plicable to  a  woman  is  not  applicable  to  a  man.  And 
this  in  turn  proves  sharp  contrasts  between  the  ideals 
regarding  the  moral  duties  of  men  and  of  women. 

An  interesting  point  in  the  Japanese  moral  ideal  is  the 
fact  that  the  principle  of  filial  obedience  was  carried  to 
such  extremes  that  even  prostitution  of  virtue  at  the 
command  of  the  parents,  or  for  the  support  of  the 
parents,  was  not  only  permitted  but,  under  special  condi- 
tions, was  highly  praised.  Modern  prostitution  is  ren- 
dered possible  chiefly  through  the  action  of  this  per- 
*P.  148. 


2»64       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

verted  principle.  Although  the  sale  of  daughters  for 
immoral  purposes  is  theoretically  illegal,  yet,  in  fact,  it 
is  of  frequent  occurrence. 

Although  concubinage  was  not  directly  taught  by 
Confucius,  yet  it  was  never  forbidden  by  him,  and  the 
leaders  and  rulers  of  the  land  have  lent  the  custom  the 
authority  and  justification  of  their  example.  As  we  have 
already  seen,  the  now  ruling  Emperor  has  several  con- 
cubines, and  all  of  his  children  are  the  offspring  of  these 
concubines.  In  Old  Japan,  therefore,  there  were  two 
separate  ideals  of  morality  for  the  two  sexes. 

The  question  may  be  raised  how  a  social  order  which 
required  such  fidelity  on  the  part  of  the  woman  could 
permit  such  looseness  on  the  part  of  the  man,  whether 
married  or  not.  How  could  the  same  social  order  pro- 
duce two  moral  ideals?  The  answer  is  to  be  found  in 
several  facts.  First,  there  is  the  inherent  desire  of  each 
/liusband  to  be  the  sole  possessor  of  his  wife's  afifections. 
/  As  the  stronger  of  the  two,  he  would  bring  destruction 
'  on  an  unfaithful  wife  and  also  on  any  who  dared  invade 
his  home.  Although  the  woman  doubtless  has  the  same 
desire  to  be  the  sole  possessor  of  her  husband's  affection, 
she  has  not  the  same  power,  either  to  injure  a  rival  or  tc 
punish  her  faithless  husband.  Furthermore,  licentious- 
ness in  women  has  a  much  more  visibly  disastrous  effect 
on  her  procreative  functions  than  equal  licentiousness  in 
man.  This,  too,  would  serve  to  beget  and  maintain  dif- 
ferent ethical  standards  for  the  two  sexes.  Finally,  and 
perhaps  no  less  effective  than  the  two  preceding,  is  the 
fact  that  the  general  social  consciousness  held  different 
conceptions  in  regard  to  the  social  positions  of  man  and 
woman.  The  one  was  the  owner  of  the  family,  the  lord 
and  master;  to  him  belonged  the  freedom  to  do  as  he 
chose.  The  other  was  a  variety  of  property,  not  free 
in  any  sense  to  jilcase  herself,  but  to  do  only  as  her  lord 
and  master  required. 

An  illustration  of  the  first  reason  given  above  came 
to  my  knowledge  not  long  since.  Rev.  John  T.  Gulick 
saw  in  Kanagawa,  in  1862,  a  man  going  through  the 
streets  carrying  the  bloody  heads  of  a  man  and  a  woman 
which  he  declared  to  be  those  of  his  wife  and  her  setlucer. 


MORAL    IDEALS  265 

whom  he  had  caught  and  killed  in  the  act  of  adultery, 
This  act  of  the  husband's  was  in  perfect  accord  with  the 
practices  and  ideals  of  the  time,  and  not  seldom  figures 
in  the  romances  of  Old  Japan. 

The  new  Civil  Code  adopted  in  1898  furnishes  an  au- 
thoritative statement  of  many  of  the  moral  ideals  of  New 
Japan.  For  the  following  summary  I  am  indebted  to 
the  Japan  Mail/^  '■  In  regard  to  marriage  it  is  note- 
worthy that  the  "  prohibited  degrees  of  relationship  are 
the  same  as  those  in  England  " — including  the  deceased 
wife's  sister.  "  The  minimum  age  for  legal  marriage  is 
seventeen  in  the  case  of  a  man  and  fifteen  in  the  case  of 
a  woman,  and  marriage  takes  effect  on  notification  to 
the  registrar,  being  thus  a  purely  civil  contract.  As  to 
divorce,  it  is  provided  that  the  husband  and  wife  may 
effect  it  by  mutual  consent,  and  its  legal  recognition 
takes  the  form  of  an  entry  by  the  registrar,  no  reference 
being  necessary  to  the  judicial  authorities.  Where' 
mutual  consent  is  not  obtained,  however,  an  action 
for  divorce  must  be  brought,  and  here  it  appears 
that  the  rights  of  the  woman  do  not  receive  the 
same  recognition  as  those  of  the  man.  Thus,  al- 
though adultery  committed  by  the  wife  constitutes  a 
valid  ground  of  divorce,  we  do  not  find  that  aduUery 
on  the  husband's  part  furnishes  a  plea  to  the  wife. 
Ill-treatment  or  gross  insult,  such  as  renders  liv- 
ing together  impracticable,  or  desertion,  constitutes  a 
reason  for  divorce  from  the  wife's  point  of  view."  The 
English  reviewer  here  adds  that  "  since  no  treatment 
can  be  worse  nor  any  insult  grosser  than  open  incon- 
stancy on  the  part  of  a  husband,  it  is  conceivable  that  a 
judge  might  consider  that  such  conduct  renders  living 
together  impracticable.  But  in  the  presence  of  an  ex- 
plicit provision  with  regard  to  the  wife's  adultery  and  in 
the  absence  of  any  such  provision  with  regard  to  the 
husband's,  we  doubt  whether  any  court  of  law  would 
exercise  discretion  in  favor  of  the  woman."  The  gross 
"  insult  of  inconstancy  "  on  the  part  of  the  husband  is  a 
plea  that  has  never  yet  been  recognized  by  Japanese 
society.  The  reviewer  goes  on  to  say :  "  One  cannot 
♦June  25,  1898. 


266        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

help  wishing  that  the  pecnhar  code  of  morality  observed 
by  husbands  in  this  country  had  received  some  condem- 
nation at  the  hands  of  the  framers  of  the  new  Code.  It 
is  further  laid  down  that  a  '  person  who  is  judicially  di- 
vorced or  punished  because  of  adultery  cannot  contract 
a  marriage  with  the  other  party  to  the  adultery.'  If 
that  extended  to  the  husband  it  would  be  an  excellent 
provision,  well  calculated  to  correct  one  of  the  worst 
social  abuses  of  this  country.  Unfortunately,  as  we 
have  seen,  it  applies  apparently  to  the  case  of  the  wife 
only."  The  provision  for  divorce  by  "  mutual  consent  " 
is  striking  and  ominous.  It  makes  divorce  a  matter  of 
entirely  private  arrangement,  unless  one  of  the  parties 
objects.  In  a  land  where  women  are  so  docile,  is  it 
likely  that  the  wife  would  refuse  to  consent  to  divorce 
when  her  lord  and  master  requests  or  commands  her  to 
leave  his  home?  "  There  are  not  many  women  in  Japan 
who  could  refuse  to  become  a  party  to  the  '  mutual  con- 
sent '  arrangement  if  they  were  convinced  that  they  had 
lost  their  husband's  affection  and  that  he  could  not  live 
comfortably  with  them."  It  would  appear  that  nothing 
whatever  is  said  by  the  Code  with  reference  to  con- 
cubinage, either  allowing  or  forbidding  it.  Presumably 
a  man  may  have  but  one  legitimate  wife,  and  children  by 
concubines  must  be  registered  as  illegitimate.  Noth- 
ing, however,  on  this  point  seems  to  be  stated,  although 
provision  is  made  for  the  public  acknowledgment  of 
illegitimate  children.  "  Thus,  a  father  can  acknowledge 
a  natural  child,  making  what  is  called  a  '  shoshi,'  and  if. 
subsequent  to  acknowledgment,  the  father  and  mother 
marry,  the  *  shoshi,'  acquires  the  status  of  a  legitimate 
chikU  such  status  reckoning  back,  apparently  to  the  time 
of  birtli."  Evidently,  this  provision  rests  on  the  impli- 
cation that  the  mother  is  an  unmarried  woman — pre- 
sumably a  concubine. 

Recent  statistics  throw  a  rather  lurid  light  on  these 
provisions  of  the  Code.  The  Imperial  Cabinet  for  some 
years  past  has  published  in  French  and  Japanese  a 
resume  of  national  statistics.  Those  bearing  on  mar- 
riage and  divorce,  in  the  volume  published  in  1897,  may 
well  be  given  at  this  point. 


MORAL    IDEALS  267 


MARRIAGES 

DIVORCES 

LEGITIMATE    BIRTHS 

ILLEGITIMATE 

1890 

325,141 

109,088 

1,079,121 

66,253 

I89I 

325.651 

112,411 

1,033,653 

64,122 

1892 

349.489 

133,498 

1,134,665 

72,369 

1893 

358,398 

116.775 

1,105,119 

73,677 

1894 

361,319 

114,436 

1. 132. 897 

76,407 

1895 

365,633 

110,838 

1,166,254 

80,168 

1897 

395,207 

124,075 

1,335.125 

89,996* 

These  authoritative  statistics  show  how  divorce  is  a 
regular  part  of  the  Japanese  family  system,  one  out  of 
three  marriages  proving  abortive. 

Morally  Japan's  weak  spot  is  the  relation  of  the  sexes, 
both  before  and  after  marriage.  Strict  monogamy,  with 
the  equality  of  duties  of  husband  and  wife,  is  the  remedy 
for  the  disease. 

This  slight  sketch  of  the  provision  of  the  new  Code  as 
it  bears  on  the  purity  of  the  home,,  and  on  the  develop- 
ment of  noble  manhood  and  womanhood,  shows  that  the 
Code  is  very  defective.  It  practically  recognizes  and 
legalizes  the  present  corrupt  practices  of  society,  and 
makes  no  efifort  to  establish  higher  ideals.  Whether 
anything  more  should  be  expected  of  a  Code  drawn  up 
under  the  present  circumstances  is,  of  course,  an  open 
question.  But  the  Code  reveals  the  astonishingly  low 
condition  of  the  moral  standards  for  the  home,  one  of 
the  vital  weaknesses  of  New  Japan.  The  defectiveness 
of  the  new  Code  in  regard  to  the  matters  just  considered 
must  be  argued,  however,  not  from  the  failure  to  em- 
body Occidental  moral  standards,  but  rather  from  the 
failure  to  recognize  the  actual  nature  of  the  social  order 
of  New  Japan.  While  the  Code  recognizes  the  principle 
of  individualism  and  individual  rights  and  worth  in  all 
other  matters,  in  regard  to  the  home,  the  most  important 
social  unit  in  the  body  politic,  the  Code  legalizes  and 
perpetuates  the  old  pre-Meiji  standards.  Individualism 
in  the  general  social  order  demands  its  consistent  recog- 
nition in  every  part. 

We  cannot  conclude  our  discussion  of  Japanese  ideas 
as  to  woman,  and  the  consequent   results   to  morality, 

*The  last  line  of  figures,  those  for  1897,  is  taken  from  Rev. 
U.  G.  Murphy's  statistical  pamphlet  on  "The  Social  Evil  in 
Japan." 


268        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

without  referring  to  the  great  changes  which  are  to-day 
taking  place.  Although  the  new  Civil  Code  has  not 
done  all  that  we  could  ask,  we  would  not  ignore  what  it 
has  secured.  Says  Prof.  Gubbins  in  the  excellent  intro- 
duction to  his  translation  of  the  Codes: 

"  In  no  respect  has  modern  progress  in  Japan  made 
greater  strides  than  in  the  improvement  of  the  position 
of  woman.  Though  she  still  labors  under  certain  dis- 
abilities, a  woman  can  now  become  a  head  of  a  family, 
and  exercise  authority  as  such;  she  can  inherit  and  own 
property  and  manage  it  herself;  she  can  exercise  parental 
authority;  if  single,  or  a  widow,  she  can  adopt;  she  is 
one  of  the  parties  to  adoption  efifected  by  her  husband, 
and  her  consent,  in  addition  to  that  of  her  husband,  is 
necessary  to  the  adoption  of  her  child  by  another  per- 
son; she  can  act  as  guardian,  or  curator,  and  she  has  a 
voice  in  family  councils."  In  all  these  points  the  Code 
marks  a  great  advance,  and  reveals  by  contrast  the 
legally  helpless  condition  of  woman  prior  to  1898.  But 
in  certain  respects  practice  is  preceding  theory.  We 
would  call  special  attention  to  the  exalted  position  and 
honor  publicly  accorded  to  the  Empress.  On  more  than 
one  historic  occasion  she  has  appeared  at  the  Em- 
peror's side,  a  thing  unknown  in  Old  Japan.  Tlie  Im- 
perial Silver  Wedding  (1892)  was  a  great  event,  unprece- 
dented in  the  annals  of  the  Orient.  Commemorative 
postage  stamps  were  struck  off  which  were  first  used  on 
the  auspicious  day. 

The  wedding  of  the  Prince  Imperial  (in  May,  1900) 
was  also  an  event  of  unique  importance  in  Japanese  social 
and  moral  history.  Never  before,  in  the  2600  years 
claimed  by  her  historians,  has  an  heir  to  the  throne 
been  honored  by  a  public  wedding.  The  ceremony  was 
prepared  dc  novo  for  the  occasion  and  the  pledges  were 
mutual.  In  the  reception  that  followed,  the  Imperial 
bride  stood  beside  her  Imperial  husband.  On  this  occa- 
sion, too,  commemorative  postage  stamps  were  issued 
and  first  used  on  the  auspicious  (lay;  the  entire  land  was 
brilliantly  decorated  with  flags  and  lanterns.  Countless 
congratulatory  meetings  were  held  throughout  the  coun- 
try   and    thousands    of    gifts,    letters,    and    telegra]>hic 


MORAL    IDEALS  269 

messages  expressed  the  joy  and  good  will  of  the 
people. 

But  the  chief  significance  of  these  events  is  the  new 
and  exalted  position  accorded  to  woman  and  to  mar- 
riage by  the  highest  personages  of  the  land.  It  is  said 
by  some  that  the  ruling  Emperor  will  be  the  last  to  have 
concubines.  However  that  may  be,  woman  has  already 
attained  a  rank  and  marriage  an  honor  unknown  in  any 
former  age  in  Japan,  and  still  quite  unknown  in  any 
Oriental  land  save  Japan. 

A  serious  study  of  Japanese  morality  should  not  fail 
to  notice  the  respective  parts  taken  by  Buddhism  and 
Confucianism.  The  contrast  is  so  marked.  While  Con- 
fucianism devoted  its  energies  to  the  inculcation  of 
proper  conduct,  to  morality  as  contrasted  to  religion. 
Buddhism  devoted  its  energies  to  the  development  of  a 
cultus,  paying  little  attention  to  morality.  A  recent 
Japanese  critic  of  Buddhism  remarks  that  "  though 
Buddhism  has  a  name  in  the  world  for  the  excellence  of 
its  ethical  system,  yet  there  exists  no  treatise  in  Japa- 
nese which  sets  forth  the  distinctive  features  of  Bud- 
dhist ethics."  Buddhist  literature  is  chiefly  occupied 
with  mythology,  metaphysics,  and  eschatology,  ethical 
precepts  being  interwoven  incidentally.  The  critic  just 
quoted  states  that  the  pressing  need  of  the  times  is  that 
Buddhist  ethics  should  be  disentangled  from  Buddhist 
mythology.  The  great  moralists  of  Japan  have  been 
Confucianists.  Distinctively  Japanese  morality  has 
derived  its  impulse  from  Confucian  classics.  A  new 
spirit,  however,  is  abroad  among  the  Buddhist  priest- 
hood. Their  preaching  is  increasingly  ethical.  The 
common  people  are  saying  that  the  sermons  heard  in 
certain  temples  are  identical  with  those  of  Christians. 
How  widely  this  imitation  of  Christian  preaching  has 
spread  I  cannot  say;  but  that  Christianity  has  in  any  de- 
gree been  imitated  is  significant,  both  ethically  and 
sociologically. 

Buddhism  is  not  alone,  however,  in  imitating  Chris- 
tianity. A  few  years  ago  Dr.  D.  C.  Greene  attended  the 
preaching  services  of  a  modern  Shinto  sect,  the  "  Ten- 
Ri-Kyo,"  the  Heaven-Reason-Teaching,  and  was  sur- 


270       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

prised  to  hear  almost  literal  quotations  from  the  "  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  " ;  the  source  of  the  sentiment  and  doc- 
trine was  not  stated  and  very  likely  was  not  known  to 
the  speaker.  Dr.  Greene,  who  has  given  this  sect  con- 
siderable study,  is  satisfied  that  the  insistence  of  its 
teachers  on  moral  conduct  is  general  and  genuine. 
When  I  visited  their  headquarters,  not  far  from  Nara,  in 
1895,  and  inquired  of  one  of  the  priests  as  to  the  chief 
points  of  importance  in  their  teaching,  I  was  told  that 
the  necessity  of  leading  an  honorable  and  correct  life 
was  most  emphasized.  There  are  reasons  for  thinking 
that  the  Kurozumi  sect  of  Shintoism,  with  its  emphasis 
on  morality,  is  considerably  indebted  to  Christianity  both 
for  its  origin  and  its  doctrine. 

It  is  evident  that  Christianity  is  having  an  influence 
in  Japan,  far  beyond  the  ranks  of  its  professed  believers. 
It  is  proving  a  stimulus  to  the  older  faiths,  stirring  them 
up  to  an  earnestness  in  moral  teaching  that  they  never 
knew  in  the  olden  times.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this 
widespread  emphasis  on  ethical  truth  comes  at  a  time 
when  morality  is  suffering  a  wide  collapse. 

An  important  point  for  the  sociological  student  of 
Japanese  moral  ideals  is  the  fact  that  her  moralists  have 
directed  their  attention  chiefly  to  the  conduct  of  the 
rulers.  The  ideal  of  conduct  as  stated  by  them  is  for  a 
samurai.  If  any  action  is  praised,  it  is  said  that  it  be- 
comes a  samurai ;  if  condenmed,  it  is  on  the  ground  that 
it  is  not  becoming  to  a  samurai.  Anything  wrong  or 
vulgar  is  said  to  be  what  you  might  expect  of  the  com- 
mon man.  All  the  terms  of  the  higher  morality,  such  as 
righteousness,  duty,  benevolence,  are  expounded  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  samurai,  that  is,  from  the  standpoint 
of  loyalty.  The  forty-seven  ronin  were  pronounced 
"  righteous  samurai  "  because  they  avenged  the  death 
of  their  lord,  even  though  in  doing  so  they  committed 
deeds  that,  by  themselves,  would  have  been  condemned. 
Japanese  history  and  literature  proclaim  the  same  ideal. 
They  are  exclusively  concerned  with  the  deeds  of  the 
higher  class,  the  court  and  the  samurai.  The  actual 
condition  of  the  common  people  in  ancient  times  is  a 
matter  not  easily  determined.     The  morality  of  the  com- 


MORAL   IDEALS  271 

moil  people  was  more  a  matter  of  unreasoning  custom 
than  of  theory  and  instruction.  But  these  facts  are  suc- 
ceptible  of  interpretation  if  we  remember  that  the 
interest  of  the  historian  and  the  moraHst  was  not  in 
humanity,  as  such,  but  in  the  external  features  of  the 
social  order.  Their  gaze  was  on  the  favored  few,  on  the 
nobility,  the  court,  and  the  samurai. 

In  closing  our  discussion  of  Japanese  moral  ideals  it 
may  not  be  amiss  to  append  the  Imperial  Edict  concern- 
ing the  moral  education  of  the  youtl?  of  Japan,  issued 
by  the  Emperor  November  31,  1890.  This  is  supposed 
to  be  the  distilled  essence  of  Shinto  and  Confucian  teach- 
ing. It  is  to-day  the  only  authoritative  teaching  on 
morality  given  in  the  public  schools.  It  is  read  with 
more  reverence  than  is  accorded  to  the.  Bible  in  England 
or  America.     It  is  considered  both  holy  and  inspired. 

IMPERIAL   EDICT   ON    MORAL   EDUCATION 

"  We  consider  that  the  Founder  of  Our  Empire  and 
the  ancestors  of  Our  Imperial  House  placed  the  founda- 
tion of  the  country  on  a  grand  and  permanent  basis,  and 
established  their  authority  on  the  principles  of  profound 
humanity  and  benevolence. 

"  That  Our  subjects  have  throughout  ages  deserved 
well  of  the  state  by  their  loyalty  and  piety,  and  by  their 
harmonious  co-operation,  is  in  accordance  with  the 
essential  character  of  Our  nation;  and  on  these  very 
same  principles  Our  education  has  been  founded. 

"  You,  Our  subjects,  be  therefore  filial  to  your 
parents;  be  affectionate  to  your  brothers;  be  har- 
monious as  husbands  and  wives;  and  be  faithful  to  your 
friends;  conduct  yourselves  with  propriety  and  careful- 
ness; extend  generosity  and  benevolence  toward  your 
neighbors;  attend  to  your  studies  and  follow  your  pur- 
suits; cultivate  your  intellects  and  elevate  your  morals; 
advance  public  benefits  and  promote  social  interests ;  be 
always  found  in  the  good  observance  of  the  laws  and 
constitution  of  the  land;  display  your  personal  courage 
and  public  spirit  for  the  sake  of  the  country  whenever 
required;     and     thus     support     the     Imperial     prerog- 


272        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ativc,  which  is  coexistent  with  the  Heavens  and  the 
Earth. 

"  Such  conduct  on  your  part  will  not  only  strengthen 
the  character  of  Our  good  and  loyal  subjects,  but  con- 
duce also  to  the  maintenance  of  the  fame  of  your  worthy 
forefathers. 

"  This  is  the  instruction  bequeathed  by  Our  ancestors 
and  to  be  followed  by  Our  subjects ;  for  it  is  the  truth 
which  has  guided  and  guides  them  in  their  own  affairs 
and  their  dealings  toward  aliens. 

''  We  hope,  therefore,  that  We  and  Our  subjects  will 
regard  these  sacred  precepts  with  one  and  the  same 
heart  in  order  to  attain  the  same  ends." 


XXIV 
MORAL   PRACTICE 

ONE  noticeable  characteristic  of  the  Japanese  is 
the  publicity  of  the  life  of  the  individual.  He 
seems  to  feel  no  need  for  privacy.  Houses  are 
so  constructed  that  privacy  is  practically  impossible. 
The  slight  paper  shoji  and  fusuma  between  the  small 
rooms  serve  only  partially  to  shut  out  peering  eyes; 
they  afiford  no  protection  from  listening  ears.  More- 
over, these  homes  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  open 
upon  public  streets,  and  a  passer-by  may  see  much  of 
what  is  done  within.  Even  the  desire  for  privacy  seems 
lacking.  The  publicity  of  the  private  (  ?)  baths  and  sani- 
tary conveniences  which  the  Occidental  puts  entirely  out 
of  sight  has  already  been  noted. 

I  once  passed  through  a  village  and  was  not  a  little 
amazed  to  see  two  or  three  bath  tubs  on  the  public  road, 
each  occupied  by  one  or  more  persons;  nor  were  the 
occupants  children  alone,  but  men  and  women  also. 
Calling  at  the  home  of  a  gentleman  in  Kyushu  with 
whom  I  had  some  business,  and  gaining  no  notice  at  the 
front  entrance,  I  went  around  to  the  side  of  the  house 
only  to  discover  the  lady  of  the  place  taking  her  bath 
with  her  children,  in  a  tub  quite  out  of  doors,  while  a 
manservant  chopped  wood  but  a  few  paces  distant. 

The  natural  indifference  of  the  Japanese  to  the  ex- 
posure of  the  unclothed  body  is  an  interesting  fact.  In 
the  West  such  indifference  is  rightly  considered  im- 
modest. In  Japan,  however,  immodesty  consists  en- 
tirely in  the  intention  of  the  heart  and  does  not  arise 
from  the  accident  of  the  moment  or  the  need  of  the 
occasion.  With  a  fellow  missionary,  I  went  some  years 
since  to  some  famous  hot  springs  at  the  foot  of  Mount 


274       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

Ase,  the  smoking  crater  of  Kyushu.  The  spot  itself  is 
most  charming,  situated  in  the  center  of  an  old  crater, 
said  to  be  the  largest  in  the  world.  Wearied  with  a  long 
walk,  we  were  glad  to  find  that  one  of  the  public  bath 
tubs  or  tanks,  some  fifteen  by  thirty  feet  in  size,  in 
a  bath  house  separate  from  other  houses,  was  quite  un- 
occupied; and  on  inquiry  we  were  told  that  bathers  were 
few  at  that  hour  of  the  day,  so  that  we  might  go  in  with- 
out fear  of  disturbance.  It  seems  that  in  such  places 
the  tiers  of  boxes  for  the  clothing  on  either  side  of  the 
door,  are  reserved  for  men  and  women  respectively. 
Ignorant  of  this  custom,  we  deposited  our  clothing  in 
the  boxes  on  the  left  hand,  and  as  quickly  as  we  could 
accommodate  ourselves  to  the  heat  of  the  water,  we  got 
into  the  great  tank.  We  were  scarcely  in,  when  a  com- 
pany of  six  or  eight  men  and  women  entered  the  bath 
house;  they  at  once  perceived  our  blunder,  but  without 
the  slightest  hesitation,  the  women  as  well  as  the  men 
went  over  to  the  men's  side  and  proceeded  to  undress 
and  get  into  the  tank  with  us,  betraying  no  conscious- 
ness that  aught  was  amiss.  So  far  as  I  could  see  there 
was  not  the  slightest  self-consciousness  in  the  entire 
proceeding.  In  the  tank,  too,  though  it  is  customary 
for  women  to  occupy  the  left  side,  on  this  occasion  they 
mingled  freely  with  the  men.  I  suppose  it  is  impossible 
in  England  or  America  to  conceive  of  such  a  state  of 
unconsciousness.  Yet  it  seems  to  be  universal  in  Japan. 
It  is  doubtless  explained  by  the  custom,  practiced  from 
infancy,  not  only  of  public  bathing,  but  also  of  living 
together  so  unreservedly.  The  heat  of  the  summer 
and  the  nature  of  Japanese  clothing,  so  easily  thrown 
off,  has  accustomed  them  to  the  greater  or  less  ex- 
posure of  the  person.  All  these  customs  have  pre- 
vented the  development  of  a  sense  of  modesty  corre- 
sponding to  that  which  has  developed  in  the  West. 
Whether  this  familiarity  of  the  sexes  is  conducive  to 
purity  of  life  or  not,  is  a  totally  different  question,  on 
which  I  do  not  here  enter. 

In  this  connection  I  can  do  no  better  than  quote 
from  a  popular,  and  in  manv  respects  deservedly  popu- 
lar, writer  on  Japan.     Says  Mr.  llearn,  "There  is  little 


MORAL   PRACTICE 


275 


privacy  of  any  sort  in  Japan.  Among  the  people, 
indeed,  what  we  term  privacy  in  the  Occident  does  not 
exist.  There  are  only  walls  of  paper  dividing  the  lives 
of  men;  there  are  only  sliding  screens  instead  of  doors; 
there  are  neither  locks  nor  bolts  to  be  used  by  day;  and 
whenever  the  weather  permits,  the  fronts  and  perhaps 
even  the  sides  of  the  houses  are  literally  removed,  and 
its  interior  widely  opened  to  the  air,  the  light,  and  the 
public  gaze.  Within  a  hotel  or  even  a  common  dwell- 
ing house,  nobody  knocks  before  entering  your  room; 
there  is  nothing  to  knock  at  except  a  shoji  or  a  fusuma, 
which  cannot  be  knocked  at  without  being  broken. 
And  in  this  world  of  paper  walls  and  sunshine,  nobody  is 
afraid  or  ashamed  of  fellow-man  or  fellow-woman. 
Whatever  is  done  is  done  after  a  fashion  in  public. 
Your  personal  habits,  your  idiosyncrasies  (if  you  have 
any),  your  foibles,  your  likes  and  dislikes,  your  loves 
and  your  hates  must  be  known  to  everybody.  Neither 
vices  nor  virtues  can  be  hidden;  there  is  absolutely 
nowhere  to  hide  them.  .  .  There  has  never  been, 
for  the  common  millions  at  least,  even  the  idea  of  living 
unobserved."  The  Japanese  language  has  no  term  for 
"  privacy,"  nor  is  it  easy  to  convey  the  idea  to  one 
who  does  not  know  the  English  word.  They  lack  the 
term  and  the  clear  idea  because  they  lack  the  prac- 
tice. 

These  facts  prove  conclusively  that  the  Japanese  in- 
dividual is  still  a  gregarious  being,  and  this  fact  throws 
light  on  the  moral  life  of  the  people.  It  follows  of 
necessity  that  the  individual  will  conform  somewhat 
more  closely  to  the  moral  standards  of  the  community, 
than  a  man  living  in  a  strong  segregarious  commu- 
nity. 

The  converse  of  this  principle  is  that  in  a  community 
whose  individuals  are  largely  segregarious,  enjoying 
privacy,  and  thus  liberty  of  action,  variations  from  the 
moral  standards  will  be  frequent  and  positive  trans- 
gressions not  uncommon.  In  the  one  case,  where 
"  communalism  "  reigns,  moral  action  is,  so  to  speak, 
automatic;  it  requires  no  particular  assertion  of  the  in- 
dividual will  to  do  right;  conformity  to  the  standard  is 


276       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

spontaneous.  In  the  latter  case,  however,  where  "  in- 
dividuahsm  "  is  the  leading  characteristic  of  the  com- 
munity, the  acceptance  of  the  moral  standards  usually 
requires  a  definite  act  of  the  individual  will. 

The  history  of  Japan  is  a  capital  illustration  of  this 
principle.  The  recent  increase  of  immorality  and  crime 
is  universally  admitted.  The  usual  explanation  is  that 
in  olden  times  every  slight  offense  was  punished  with 
death;  the  criminal  class  was  thus  continuously  ex- 
terminated. Nowadays  a  robber  can  ply  his  trade  con- 
tinuously, though  interrupted  by  frequent  intervals  of 
imprisonment.  In  former  times,  once  caught,  he  never 
could  steal  again,  except  in  the  land  of  the  shades. 
While  this  explanation  has  some  force,  it  does  not  cover 
the  ground.  A  better  explanation  for  the  modern  in- 
crease of  lawlessness  is  the  change  in  the  social  order 
itself.  The  new  order  gives  each  man  wider  liberty 
of  individual  action.  He  is  free  to  choose  his  trade 
and  his  home.  Formerly  these  were  determined  for  him 
by  the  accident  of  his  birth.  His  freedom  is  greater 
and  so,  too,  are  his  temptations. 

Furthermore,  the  standards  of  conduct  themselves 
have  been  changing.  Certain  acts  which  would  have 
brought  praise  and  honor  if  committed  fifty  years  ago, 
such,  for  instance,  as  "  kataki  uchi,"  revenge,  would 
to-day  soon  land  one  behind  prison  doors.  In  a  word. 
"  individualism "  is  beginning  to  work  powerfully  on 
conduct;  it  has  not  yet  gained  the  ascendency  attained 
in  the  West;  it  is  nevertheless  abroad  in  the  land. 
The  young  are  especially  influenced  by  it.  Taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  liberty  it  grants,  many  forms  of 
immorality  seem  to  be  on  the  increase.  So  far  as  I 
can  gather  by  inquiry,  there  has  been  a  great  collajiso 
not  only  in  honesty,  but  also  in  the  matter  of  sexual 
morality.  It  will  hardly  do  to  say  dogmatically  that 
the  national  standards  of  morality  have  been  lowered, 
but  it  is  beyond  c|uestion  that  the  power  of  the  com- 
munity to  enforce  those  standards  lias  suddenly  come 
to  naught  by  reason  of  the  changing  social  oriler. 
Western  thought  and  ])ractice  as  to  the  structure  of 
society  and  the  freedom   of  the  individual  have   been 


MORAL   PRACTICE  277 

emphasized;  Spencer  and  Mill  and  Huxley  have  been 
widely  read  by  the  educated  classes.* 

Furthermore,  freedom  and  ease  of  travel,  and  liberty 
to  change  one's  residence  at  will,  and  thus  the  ability 
to  escape  unpleasant  restraints,  have  not  a  little  to  do 
with  this  collapse  in  morality.  Tens  of  thousands  of 
students  in  the  higher  schools  are  away  from  their  homes 
and  are  entirely  without  the  steadying  support  that 
home  gives.  Then,  too,  there  is  a  wealth  among  the 
common  people  that  was  never  known  in  earlier  times. 
Formerly  the  possession  of  means  was  limited  to  a  rela- 
tively small  number  of  families.  To-day  we  see  general 
prosperity,  and  a  consequent  tendency  to  luxury  that 
was  unknown  in  any  former  period. 

To  be  specific,  let  us  note  that  in  feudal  times  there 
were  some  270  daimyo  living  in  the  utmost  luxury. 
About  1,500,000  samurai  were  dependent  on  them  as 
retainers,  while  30,000,000  people  supported  these  sons 
of  luxury.  In  1863  the  farmers  of  Japan  raised  30,000- 
000  koku  of  rice,  and  paid  22,000,000  of  it  to  the  govern- 
ment as  taxes.  Taxed  at  the  same  rate  to-day  the  farmers 
would  have  to  pay  280,000,000  yen,  whereas  the  actual 
payment  made  by  them  is  only  38,000,000  yen.  "  The 
farmer's  manner  of  life  has  radically  changed.  He  is 
now  prosperous  and  comfortable,  wearing  silk  where  for- 
merly he  could  scarcely  afford  cotton,  and  eating  rice 
almost  daily,  whereas  formerly  he  scarcely  knew  its 
taste."  t 

It  is  stated  by  the  Japan  Mail  that  whereas  but  "  one 
person  out  of  ten  was  able  thirty  years  ago  to  afford 
rice,  the  nine  being  content  to  live  from  year's  end  to 
year's  end  on  barley  alone  or  barley  mixed  with  a 
modicum  of  rice,  six  persons  to-day  out  of  ten  count 
it  a  hardship  if  they  cannot  sit  down  to  a  square  meal 
of  rice  daily.  .  .  Rice  is  no  longer  a  luxury  to  the 
mass    of    the    people,    but    has    become    a    necessity." 

*It  is  stated  that  Mill's  work  on  "Representative  Govern- 
ment," which,  translated,  fills  a  volume  of  five  hundred  pages  in 
Japanese,  has  reached  its  third  edition. 

{The  Japan  Mail  for  February  5,  1898;  quoting  from  the 
Jijt  Shwipo. 


278       EVOLUTION    OF   THE    JAPANESE 

Financially,  then,  the  farming  and  middle  classes  are 
incomparably  better  off  to-day  than  in  olden  times. 
The  amount  of  ready  money  which  a  man  can  earn  has 
not  a  little  to  do  with  his  morality.  If  his  upright- 
ness depends  entirely  or  chiefly  on  his  lack  of  oppor- 
tunity to  do  wrong,  he  will  be  a  moral  man  so  long  as 
he  is  desperately  poor  or  under  strict  control.  But 
give  him  the  chance  to  earn  ready  cash,  together  with 
the  freedom  to  live  where  he  chooses,  and  to  spend  his 
income  as  he  pleases,  and  he  is  sure  to  develop  various 
forms  of  immorality. 

I  have  made  a  large  number  of  inquiries  in  regard 
to  the  increase  or  decrease  of  concubinage  during  the 
present  era.  Statistics  on  this  subject  are  not  to  be 
had,  for  concubines  are  not  registered  as  such  nor  yet 
as  wives.  If  a  concubine  lives  in  the  home  of  the  man, 
she  is  registered  as  a  domestic,  and  her  children  should 
be  registered  as  hers,  although  I  am  told  that  they  are 
very  often  illegally  registered  as  his.  If  she  lives  in 
her  own  home,  the  concubine  still  retains  the  name  and 
registry  of  her  own  parents.  The  government  takes  no 
notice  of  concubinage,  and  publishes  no  statistics  in 
regard  to  it.  The  children  of  concubines  who  live  with 
their  own  parents  are,  I  am  told,  usually  registered 
as  the  children  of  the  mother's  father;  otherwise  they 
are  registered  as  illegitimate;  statistics,  therefore,  fur- 
nish no  clew  as  to  the  increase  or  decrease  or  amount 
of  concubinage  and  illegitimacy,  most  important  ques- 
tions in  Japanese  sociology.  r»ut  my  informants  are 
unanimous  in  the  assertion  that  there  has  been  a  marked 
increase  of  concubinage  during  recent  years.  The 
simple  and  unif(5rm  explanation  given  is  that  multitudes 
of  merchants  and  ofificials.  and  even  of  farmers,  can 
afford  to  maintain  them  to-day  who  formerly  were  un- 
able to  do  so.  The  older  ideals  on  this  subject  were 
such  as  to  allow  of  concubinage  to  the  extent  of  one's 
financial  ability. 

During  the  year  1898  the  newspapers  and  leading 
writers  of  Japan  carried  on  a  vigorous  discussion  con- 
cerning concubinage.  The  Vorocu  Choho  published  an 
inventory  of  493   men   maintaining  separate   establish- 


MORAL    PRACTICE  279 

ments  for  their  concubines,  giving  not  only  the  names 
and  the  business  of  the  men,  but  also  the  character  of 
the  women  chosen  to  be  concubines.  Of  these  493 
men,  9  are  ministers  of  state  and  ex-ministers;  15  are 
peers  or  members  of  House  of  Peers;  7  are  barristers; 
3  are  learned  doctors;  the  rest  are  nearly  all  business 
men.  The  women  were,  previous  to  concubinage, 
Dancing  girls,  183;  Servants,  69;  Prostitutes,  17; 
"Ordinary  young  girls,"  91;  Adopted  daughters,  15; 
Widows,  7;  Performers,  7;  Miscellaneous,  104.  In  this 
discussion  it  has  been  generally  admitted  that  concu- 
binage has  increased  in  modern  times,  and  the  cause 
attributed  is  "  general  looseness  of  morals."  Some  of 
the  leading  writers  maintain  that  the  concubinage  of 
former  times  was  largely  confined  to  those  who  took 
concubines  to  insure  the  maintenance  of  the  family  line; 
and  also  that  the  taking  of  dancing  girls  was  unknown 
in  olden  times. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that  some 
of  those  who  defend  the  practice  of  concubinage  appeal 
to  the  example  of  the  Old  Testament,  saying  that  what 
was  good  enough  for  the  race  that  gave  to  Christians 
the  greater  part  of  their  Bible  is  good  enough  for  the 
Japanese.  Another  point  in  the  discussion  interesting 
to  the  Occidental  is  the  repeated  assertion  that  there  is 
no  real  difference  between  the  East  and  the  West  in 
point  of  practice;  the  only  difference  is  that  whereas  in 
the  East  all  is  open  and  above  board,  in  the  West 
extra-marital  relations  are  condemned  by  popular 
opinion,  and  are  therefore  concealed.*  A  few  writers 
publicly  defend  concubinage;  most,  however,  condemn 
it  vigorously,  even  though  making  no  profession  of 
Christian  faith.  Of  the  latter  class  is  Mr.  Fukuzawa, 
one  of  Japan's  leaders  of  public  opinion.  In  his  most 
trenchant  attack,  he  asserts  that  if  Japan  is  to  progress 
in  civilization  she  must  abandon  her  system  of  con- 
cubinage. That  new  standards  in  regard  to  marital  re- 
lations are  arising  in  Japan  is  clear;  but  they  have  as 
yet   little    force;   there   is   no   consensus   of  opinion   to 

*  The  best  summary  of  this  discussion  which  I  have  seen  in 
English  is  found  in  th^  Japan  Mail  for  February  4,  1899. 


28o        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

give  them  force.  He  who  transgresses  them  is  still 
recognized  as  in  good  standing  in  the  community. 

Similarly,  with  respect  to  business  honesty,  it  is  the 
opinion  of  all  with  whom  I  have  conversed  on  the 
subject  that  there  has  been  a  great  decline  in  the 
honesty  of  the  common  people.  In  feudal  days  thefts 
and  petty  dishonesty  were  practically  unknown.  To-day 
these  are  exceedingly  common.  Foreign  merchants 
complain  that  it  is  impossible  to  trust  Japanese  to  carry 
out  verbal  or  written  promises,  when  the  conditions  of 
the  market  change  to  their  disadvantage.  It  is  accord- 
ingly charged  that  the  Japanese  have  no  sense  of  honor 
in  business  matters. 

The  Kokiunin  Shinbun  (People's  News)  has  re- 
cently discussed  the  question  of  Japanese  commercial 
morality,  with  the  following  results:  It  says,  first,  that 
goods  delivered  are  not  up  to  sample;  secondly,  that 
engagements  as  to  time  are  not  kept ;  thirdly,  that  busi- 
ness men  have  no  adequate  appreciation  of  the  perma- 
nent interests  of  business ;  fourthly,  that  they  are  with- 
out ability  to  work  in  common;  and  fifthly,  that  they  do 
not  get  to  know  either  their  customers  or  themselves.* 

"  The  Japanese  consul  at  Tientsin  recently  reported  to 
the  Government  that  the  Chinese  have  begun  to  regard 
Japanese  manufactures  with  serious  distrust.  Merchan- 
dise received  from  Japan,  they  allege,  does  not  corre- 
spond with  samples,  and  packing  is,  in  almost  all  cases, 
miserably  unsubstantial.  The  consul  expresses  the 
deepest  regret  that  Japanese  merchants  are  disposed  to 
break  their  faith  without  regard  to  honor."  f 

In  this  connection  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  revert  to 
illustrations  that  have  come  within  my  own  experience. 
I  have  already  cited  instances  of  the  apparent  duplicity 
to  which  deacons  and  candidates  for  the  ministry  stoop. 
I  do  not  believe  that  either  the  deacons  or  the  candi- 
dates had  the  slightest  thought  that  they  were  doing 
anything  dishonorable.  Nor  do  I  for  a  moment 
suppose  that  the  President  and  the  Trustees  of  the 
Doshisha  at  all  realized  the  gravity  of  the  moral  aspect 

*  Japan  Mail ,  January  14,  1899. 
\  Japan  Mail,  June  24,  1898. 


MORAL   PRACTICE  281 

of  the  course  they  took  in  diverting  the  Doshisha  from 
its  original  purposes.  They  seemed  to  think  that 
money,  once  given  to  the  Doshisha,  might  be  used 
without  regard  to  the  wishes  of  the  donors.  I  cannot 
help  wondering  how  much  of  their  thought  on  this  sub- 
ject is  due  to  the  custom  prevalent  in  Japan  ever  since 
the  establishment  of  Buddhist  temples  and  monasteries, 
of  considering  property  once  given  as  irrevocable,  so 
that  the  individuals  who  gave  it  or  their  heirs,  have  no 
further  interest  or  right  in  the  property.  _  Large  dona- 
tions in  Japan  have,  from  time  immemorial,  been  given 
thus  absolutely;  the  giver  assumed  that  the  receiver 
would  use  it  aright;  specific  directions  were  not  added 
as  to  the  purposes  of  the  gift.  American  benefactors 
of  the  Doshisha  have  given  under  the  standards  pre- 
vailing in  the  West.  The  receivers  in  Japan  have 
accepted  these  gifts  under  the  standards  prevailing  in 
the  East.  Is  not  this  in  part  the  cause  of  the  friction 
that  has  arisen  in  recent  years  over  the  administration 
of  funds  and  lands  and  houses  held  by  Japanese  for 
mission  purposes? 

In  this  connection,  however,  I  should  not  fail  to 
refer  to  the  fact  that  the  Christians  of  the  Kumiai 
(shurches,*  in  their  annual  meeting  (1898),  took  strong 
grounds  as  to  the  mismanagement  of  the  Doshisha 
by  the  trustees.  The  action  of  the  latter  in  repealing 
the  clause  of  the  constitution  which  declared  the  six 
articles  of  the  constitution  forever  unchangeable,  and 
then  of  striking  out  the  word  "  Christian  "  in  regard  to 
the  nature  of  the  moral  education  to  be  given  in  all 
departments  of  the  institution,  was  characterized  as 
"  fu-ho,"  that  is  to  say,  unlawful,  unrighteous,  or  im- 
moral. Resolutions  were  also  passed  demanding  that 
the  trustees  should  either  restore  the  expunged  words 
or  else  resign  and  give  place  to  men  who  would  restore 
them  and  carry  out  the  will  of  the  donors.  This  act 
on  the  part  of  a  large  majority  of  the  delegates  of  the 
churches  shows  that  a  standard  of  business  morality  is 
arising  in  Japan    that  promises  well  for  the  future. 

*The  constituency  of  the  Doshisha  consists  principally  of 
Kumiai  Christians. 


282        EVOLUTION    OF    THE  JAPANESE 

Before  leaving  this  question,  it  is  important  for  us 
to  consider  how  widely  in  lands  which  have  long  been 
both  Christian  and  commercial,  the  standards  of  truth- 
fulness and  business  morality  are  transgressed.  I  for 
one  do  not  feel  disposed  to  condemn  Japanese  failure 
very  severely,  when  I  think  of  the  failure  in  Western 
lands.  Then,  again,  when  we  stop  to  think  of  it,  is  it 
not  a  pretty  fine  line  that  we  draw  between  legitimate 
and  illegitimate  profits?  What  a  relative  distinction 
this  is !  Even  the  Westerner  finds  difficulty  in  discov- 
ering and  observing  it.  especially  so  when  the  man  with 
whom  he  is  dealing  happens  to  be  ignorant  of  the  real 
value  of  the  goods  in  question.  Let  us  not  be  too 
severe,  then,  in  condemning  the  Japanese,  even  though 
we  must  judge  them  to  be  deficient  in  ideals  and  con- 
duct. The  explanation  for  the  present  state  of  Japan 
in  regard  to  business  morality  is  neither  far  to  seek 
nor  hard  to  find.  It  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
brain  structure  or  inherent  race  character,  but  is  whollv 
a  matter  of  changing  social  order.  Feudal  communal- 
ism  has  given  way  to  individualistic  commercialism. 
The  results  are  inevitable.  Japan  has  suddenly  entered 
upon  that  social  order  where  the  individuals  of  the 
nation  are  thrown  upon  their  own  choice  for  character 
and  life  as  they  have  been  at  no  previous  time.  Old 
men,  as  well  as  young,  are  thrown  ofif  their  feet  by  the 
new  temptations  into  which  they  fall. 

One  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  my  mind  for  the 
necessity  of  a  rapid  introduction  into  Japan  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  is  to  be  built  on  this  fact.  An  in- 
dividualistic social  order  demands  an  individualizing 
religion.  So  far  as  I  know,  the  older  religions,  with 
the  lofty  moral  teachings  which  one  may  freely  admit 
them  to  have,  make  no  determined  or  even  distinct  effort 
to  secure  the  activity  of  the  individual  will  in  the  adop- 
tion of  moral  ideals.  The  place  both  of  "  conversion  " 
and  of  the  public  avowal  of  one's  ''  faith  "  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  individual  character,  and  the  peculiar  fitness 
of  a  religion  having  such  characteristics  to  a  social 
order  in  which  ''  individualism  "  is  the  dominant  prin- 
ciple, have  not  yet  been  widely  recognized  by  writers 


MORAL    PRACTICE  283 

on  sociology.  These  practices  of  the  Protestant 
churches  are,  nevertheless,  of  inestimable  value  in  the 
upbuilding  both  of  the  individual  and  of  society.  And 
Japan  needs  these  elements  at  the  earliest  possible  date 
in  order  to  supplement  the  new  order  of  society  which 
is  being  established.  Without  them  it  is  a  question 
whether  in  the  long  run  this  new  order  may  not  prove  a 
step  downward  rather  than  upward. 

This  completes  our  detailed  study  of  Japanese  moral 
characteristics  as  revealed  alike  in  their  ideals  and 
their  practices.  Let  us  now  seek  for  some  general 
statement  of  the  facts  and  conclusions  thus  far  reached. 
It  has  become  clear  that  Japanese  moralists  have  placed 
the  emphasis  of  their  ethical  thinking  on  loyalty;  sub- 
ordinated to  this  has  been  filial  piety.  These  two  prin- 
ciples have  been  the  pivotal  points  of  Japanese  ethics. 
All  other  virtues  flowed  out  of  them,  and  were  inti- 
mately dependent  upon  them.  These  virtues  are 
especially  fitted  to  upbuild  and  to  maintain  the  feudal 
order  of  society.  They  are  essentially  communal  virtues. 
The  first  group,  depending  on  and  growing  out  of 
loyalty,  was  concerned  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
larger  communal  unity,  formerly  the  tribe,  and  now 
the  nation.  The  virtues  connected  with  the  second  prin- 
ciple— filial  piety — were  concerned  with  the  maintenance 
of  the  smaller  unit  of  society — the  family.  Righteous- 
ness and  duty,  of  which  much  was  made  by  Japanese 
moralists,  consisted  in  the  observance  of  these  two 
ideals. 

The  morality  of  individualism  was  largely  wanting. 
From  this  lack  sprang  the  main  defects  of  the  moral 
ideal  and  of  the  actual  practice.  The  chief  sins  of  Old 
Japan — and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  of  all  the  heathen 
world,  as  graphically  depicted  by  Mr.  Dennis  in  his 
great  work  on  "  Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress  " 
— were  sins  of  omission  and  commission  against  the  in- 
dividual. The  rights  of  inferiors  practically  received 
no  consideration  at  the  hands  of  the  moralists.  In  the 
Japanese  conception  of  righteousness  and  duty,  the 
rights  and  value  of  the  individual,  as  such,  whatever  his 
social  standing  or  sex,  were  not  included. 


284        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

One  class  of  defects  in  the  Japanese  moral  ideal  arose 
out  of  the  feudal  order  itself,  namely,  its  scorn  of 
trade.  Trade  had  no  vital  relation  to  the  communal 
unity;  hence  it  found  and  developed  no  moral  sanctions 
for  its  guidance.  The  West  conceives  of  business  de- 
ceit as  concerned  not  only  with  the  integrity  of  the 
community,  but  also  with  the  rights  of  the  individual. 
The  moral  ideals  and  sanctions  for  business  honesty 
are  therefore  doubly  strong  with  us.  The  old  order 
of  Japan  was  in  no  way  dependent  for  its  integrity  on 
business  honor  and  honesty,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  in- 
dividuals, as  such,  were  not  thought  to  have  inherent 
rights.  Under  such  conditions,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
how  universal  moral  ideals  and  sanctions  for  business 
relations  could  be  developed  and   maintained. 

One  further  point  demands  attention.  We  naturally 
ask  what  the  grounds  were  on  which  the  ethical  ideals 
were  commonly  supposed  to  have  authority.  So  far  as 
my  knowledge  goes,  this  question  received  almost  no 
consideration  by  the  ordinary  person,  and  but  little  from 
the  moralist.  Old  Japan  was  not  accustomed  to  ask 
"Why?"  It  accepted  everything  on  the  authority  of 
the  teacher,  as  children  do,  and  as  all  primitive  peoples 
do.  There  was  little  or  no  thought  as  to  the  source 
of  the  moral  ideals  or  as  to  the  nature  or  the  function 
of  the  social  sanctions.  If,  as  in  a  few  instances,  the 
questions  were  raised  as  to  their  authority,  the  reply 
ordinarily  would  be  that  they  had  derived  their  teach- 
ings from  ancient  times.  And,  if  the  matter  were 
pressed,  it  would  be  argued  that  the  most  ancient  times 
were  nearer  the  beginning  of  men.  and,  therefore,  nearer 
to  Heaven,  which  decreed  that  all  the  duties  and  customs  of 
men;  in  the  final  resort,  therefore,  authority  would  be 
attributed  to  Heaven.  Hut  such  a  (|uestioner  was  rare. 
Moral  law  was  unhesitatingly  accepted  on  the  authority 
of  the  teacher,  and  no  uncomfortable  questions  were 
asked.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  both  of  the  pivotal  moral 
ideals,  /.  r.,  loyalty  and  filial  piety,  would  support  this 
uncpiestioning  habit  of  mind,  for  to  ask  questions  as 
to  authority  is  the  beginning  both  of  disloyalty  to  the 
master  and  of  irreverence  to  the  jiarents  ami  ancestors. 


MORAL    PRACTICE  285 

The  whole  social  order,  being  one  of  authority,  un- 
questioned and  absolute,  moral  standards  were  ac- 
cepted on  the  ipse  dixit  of  great  teachers. 

In  closing,  we  revert  to  our  ever-recurring  question : 
Are  the  moral  characteristics  wherein  the  Japanese 
differ  from  other  races  inherent  and  necessary,  as  are 
their  physiological  characteristics,  or  are  they  incidental 
and  transient,  liable  to  transformation?  Light  has  been 
thrown  on  this  problem  by  every  illustration  adduced. 
We  have  seen  in  detail  that  every  characteristically 
Japanese  moral  trait  is  due  to  the  nature  of  her  past 
social  order,  and  is  changing  with  that  order.  Racial 
moral  traits,  therefore,  are  not  due  to  inherent  nature, 
to  essential  character,  to  brain  structure,  nor  are  they 
transmitted  from  father  to  son  by  the  mere  fact  of 
physical  generation.  On  the  contrary,  the  distinguish- 
ing ethical  characteristics  of  races,  as  seen  in  their 
ethical  ideals  and  their  moral  conduct,  are  determined 
by  the  dominant  social  order,  and  vary  with  it.  Ethical 
characteristics  are  transmitted  by  association,  trans- 
mission is  therefore  not  limited  to  the  relation  of  par- 
ents and  children.  The  bearing  of  this  fact  on  the 
problem  of  the  moral  transformation  of  races  could  be 
easily  shown. 


XXV 

ARE  THE  JAPANESE  RELIGIOUS? 

SAID  Prof.  Pfleiderer  to  the  writer  in  the  winter  of 
1897:  "  I  am  sorry  to  know  that  the  Japanese  are 
deficient  in  rehgious  nature."  In  an  elaborate 
article  entitled,  "  Wanted,  a  Religion,"  a  missionary 
describes  the  three  so-called  religions  of  Japan, 
Buddhism,  Confucianism,  and  Shintoism,  and  shows  to 
his  satisfaction  that  none  of  these  has  the  essential 
characteristics  of  religion. 

Mr.  Percival  Lowell  has  said  that  "  Sense  may  not 
be  vital  to  religion,  but  incense  is."  *  In  my  judg- 
ment, this  is  the  essence  of  nonsense,  and  is  fitted  to 
incense  a  man's  sense. 

The  impression  that  the  Japanese  people  are  not  re- 
ligious is  due  to  various  facts.  The  first  is  that  for 
about  three  hundred  years  the  intelligence  of  the  nation 
has  been  dominated  by  Confucian  thought,  which  rejects 
active  belief  in  supra-human  beings.  "Whcn  asked  by 
his  pupils  as  to  the  gods,  Confucius  is  reported  to  have 
said  that  men  should  respect  them,  but  should  have 
nothing  to  do  with  them.  The  tendency  of  Confucian 
ethics,  accordingly,  is  to  leave  the  gods  severely  alone, 
although  their  existence  is  not  absolutely  denied. 
When  Confucianism  became  popular  in  Japan,  the  edu- 
cated part  of  the  nation  broke  away  from  Buddhism, 
which,  for  nearly  a  thousand  years,'  had  been  univer- 
sally dominant.  To  them  Buddhism  seemed  supersti- 
tious in  the  extreme.  It  was  not  uncommon  for  them 
to  criticise  it  severely.  Muro  Kyu-so,t  speaking  of  the 
immorality  that  was  so  common  in  the  native  literature, 
says:  "Long  has  Buddhism  made  Japan  to  think  of 
nothing  as  important  except  the  worship  of  Buddlia. 
*  "  Occult  Japan,"  p.  23.  f  ^/-  cliaptur  .\.\iv. 

286 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS?      287 

So  it  is  that  evil  customs  prevail,  and  there  is  no  one 
who  does  not  find  pleasure  in  lust.  .  .  Take  out  the 
lust  and  Buddhism  from  that  book,  and  the  scenery 
and  emotions  are  well  described.  .  .  Had  he  learned 
in  the  '  Way '  of  the  sages,  he  had  not  fallen  into 
Buddhism."  *  The  tendency  of  all  persons  trained  in 
Confucian  classics  was  toward  thoroughgoing-  skepti- 
cism as  to  divine  beings  and  their  relation  to  this  world. 
For  this  reason,  beyond  doubt,  has  Western  agnosticism 
found  so  easy  an  entrance  into  Japan.  This  ready  ac- 
ceptance of  Western  agnosticism  is  a  second  fact  that 
has  tended  to  give  the  West  the  impression  referred 
to  above.  Complete  indifference  to  religion  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  educated  classes  of  to-day.  Japanese 
and  foreigners,  Christians  and  non-Christians,  alike, 
unite  in  this  opinion.  The  impression  usually  conveyed 
by  this  statement,  however,  is  that  agnosticism  is  a  new 
thing  in  Japan.  In  point  of  fact,  the  old  agnosticism 
is  merely  re-enforced  by  the  support  it  receives  from 
the  agnosticism  of  the  West. 

The  Occidental  impression  of  Japanese  irreligious 
race  nature  is  further  strengthened  by  the  frequent 
assertion  of  it  by  writers,  some  of  whom  at  least  are 
neither  partial  nor  ignorant.  Prof.  Basil  H.  Chamber- 
lain, for  instance,  repeatedly  makes  the  assertion  or 
necessitates  the  inference.  Speaking  of  pilgrimages, 
he  remarks  that  the  Japanese  "  take  their  religion 
lightly."  Discussing  the  general  question  of  religion, 
he  speaks  of  the  Japanese  as  "  essentially  undevo- 
tional,"  but  he  guards  against  the  inference  that  they 
are  therefore  specially  immoral.  Yet,  in  the  same  para- 
graph, he  adds,  "  Though  they  pray  little  and  make  light 
of  supernatural  dogma,  the  religion  of  the  family  binds 
them  down  in  truly  social  bonds."  Percival  Lowell 
also,  as  we  have  seen,  makes  light  of  Japanese  religion. 

This  conclusion  of  foreigner  observers  is  rendered  the 
more  convincing  to  the  average  reader  when  he  learns 
that  such  an  influential  man  as  Mr.  Fukuzawa  declares 
that  "  religion  is  like  tea,"  it  serves  a  social  end,  and 
nothing  more;  and  that  Mr.  Hiroyuki  Kato,  until  re- 
*  "A  Japanese  Philosopher,"  p.  120. 


288       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

cently  president  of  the  Imperial  University,  and  later 
Minister  of  Education,  states  that  "  Religion  depends 
on  fear."  Marquis  Ito,  Japan's  most  illustrious  states- 
man, is  reported  to  have  said:  "  I  regard  religion 
itself  as  quite  unnecessary  for  a  nation's  life;  science 
is  far  above  superstition,  and  what  is  religion — 
Buddhism  or  Christianity — but  superstition,  and  there- 
fore a  possible  source  of  weakness  to  a  nation?  I  do 
not  regret  the  tendency  to  free  thought  and  atheism, 
which  is  almost  universal  in  Japan,  because  I  do  not 
regard  it  as  a  source  of  danger  to  the  community."  * 

If  leaders  of  national  thought  have  such  conceptions 
as  to  the  nature  and  origin  of  religion,  is  it  strange 
that  the  rank  and  file  of  educated  people  should  have 
little  regard  for  it,  or  that  foreigners  generally  should 
believe  the  Japanese  race  to  be  essentially  non-religious? 

But  before  we  accept  this  conclusion,  various  con- 
siderations demand  our  notice.  Although  the  concep- 
tion of  religion  held  by  the  eminent  Japanese  gentlemen 
just  quoted  is  not  accepted  by  the  writer  as  correct, 
yet,  even  on  their  own  definitions,  a  study  of  Japanese 
superstitions  and  religious  ceremonies  would  easily 
prove  the  people  as  a  whole  to  be  exceedingly  religious. 
Never  had  a  nation  so  many  gods.  It  has  been  indeed 
"  the  country  of  the  gods."  Tlieir  temples  and  shrines 
have  been  innumerable.  Priests  have  abounded  and 
worshipers  swarmed.  For  worship,  however  indis- 
criminate and  thoughtless,  is  evidence  of  religious 
nature. 

Furthermore,  utterances  like  those  quoted  above  in 

*  In  immediate  connection  with  this  oft-quoted  statement, 
however,  I  would  put  the  following,  as  much  more  recent,  and 
probably  representing  more  correctly  the  Marquis's  matured 
opinion.  Mr.  Kal<ehi,  for  some  time  one  of  the  editors  of  the 
Osaka  Mainichi  Shhibitn  (Daily  News),  after  an  interview  witli 
the  illustrious  statesman  in  which  many  matters  of  national  im- 
portance were  discussed,  was  asked  by  the  Marquis  where  ho 
had  been  educated.  On  learning  that  he  was  a  graduate  of  the 
Doshisha,  the  Marquis  remarked:  "The  only  true  civilization 
is  that  which  rests  on  Christian  principles,  and  tliat  conse- 
quently, as  Japan  must  attain  her  civilization  on  these  principles, 
those  young  men  who  receive  Christian  education  will  be  the 
main  factors  in  the  development  of  future  Japan." 


ARE    THE   JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS?       289 

reg-ard  to  the  nature  and  function  of  religion,  are  fre- 
quently on  the  lips  of  Westerners  also,  multitudes  of 
whom  have  exceedingly  shallow  conceptions  of  the  real 
nature  of  religion  or  the  part  it  plays  in  the  develop- 
ment of  society  and  of  the  individual.  But  we  do  not 
pronounce  the  West  irreligious  because  of  such  utter- 
ances. We  must  not  judge  the  religious  many  by  the 
irreligious  few. 

Again,  are  they  competent  judges  who  say  the  Japa- 
nese are  non-religious?  Can  a  man  who  scorns  religion 
himself,  who  at  least  reveals  no  appreciation  of  its  real 
nature  by  his  own  heart  experience,  judge  fairly  of  the 
religious  nature  of  the  people?  Still  further,  the  re- 
ligious phenomena  of  a  people  may  change  from  age 
to  age.  In  asking,  then,  whether  a  people  is  religious 
by  nature,  we  must  study  its  entire  religious  history, 
and  not  merely  a  single  period  of  it.  The  hfe  of  modern 
Japan  has  been  rudely  shocked  by  the  sudden  accession 
of  much  new  intellectual  light.  The  contents  of  re- 
ligion depends  on  the  intellect;  sudden  and  widespread 
accession  of  knowledge  always  discredits  the  older 
forms  of  religious  expression.  An  undeveloped  re- 
ligion, still  bound  up  with  polytheistic  symbolism,  with 
its  charms  and  mementoes,  inevitably  suffers  severely 
at  the  hands  of  exact  modern  science.  For  the  edu- 
cated minority,  especially,  the  inevitable  reaction  is  to 
complete  skepticism,  to  apparent  irreligion.  For  the 
time  being,  religion  itself  may  appear  to  have  been  dis- 
credited. In  an  advancing  age,  prophets  of  religious 
dissolution  are  abundant.  Such  prophecies,  with  refer- 
ence to  Christianity,  have  been  frequent,  and  are  not  un- 
heard even  now.  Particular  beliefs  and  practices  of 
religion  have  indeed  changed  and  passed  away,  even 
in  Christianity.  But  the  essentially  religious  nature  of 
man  has  re-asserted  itself  in  every  case,  and  the  out- 
ward expressions  of  that  nature  have  thereby  only 
become  freer  from  elements  of  error  and  superstition. 
Exactly  this  is  taking  place  in  Japan  to-day.  The  ap- 
parent irreligion  of  to-day  is  the  groundwork  of  the 
purer  religion  of  to-morrow. 

If  the   Japanese   are   emotional  and    sentimentalj   we 


290       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

should  expect  them  to  be,  perhaps  more  than  most 
peoples,  religions.  This  expectation  is  not  disappointed 
by  a  study  of  their  history.  However  imperfect  as  a 
religion  we  must  pronounce  original  Shinto  to  have 
been,  consisting  of  little  more  than  a  cultus  and  a 
theogony,  yet  even  with  this  alone  the  Japanese  should 
be  pronounced  a  religious  people.  The  universality 
of  the  respect  and  adoration,  not  to  say  love,  bestowed 
throughout  the  ages  of  history  on  the  "  Kami  "  (the 
multitudinous  Gods  of  Shintoism),  is  a  standing  witness 
to  the  depth  of  the  religious  feeling  in  the  Japanese 
heart.  True,  it  is  associated  with  the  sentiments  of  love 
of  ancestors  and  country,  with  filial  piety  and  loyalty; 
but  these,  so  far  from  lowering  the  religion,  make  it 
more  truly  religious. 

Unending  lines  of  pilgrims,  visiting  noted  Shinto 
temples  and  climbing  sacred  mountain  peaks,  arrest  the 
attention  of  every  thoughtful  student  of  Japan.  These 
pilgrims  are  numbered  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
every  year.  The  visitors  to  the  great  shrine  at  Kizuki 
of  Izumo  number  about  250,000  annually.  "  The  more 
prosperous  the  season,  the  larger  the  number  of  pil- 
grims. It  rarely  falls  below  two  hundred  thousand." 
In  his  "  Occult  Japan,"  Mr.  Lowell  has  given  us  an  in- 
teresting account  of  the  "  pilgrim  clubs."  The  largest 
known  to  him  numbered  about  twelve  thousand  men, 
but  he  thinks  they  average  from  one  hundred  to  about 
five  hundred  persons  each.  The  number  of  yearly 
visitors  to  the  Shinto  shrines  at  Isc  is  estimated  at 
half  a  million,  and  ten  thousand  pilgrims  climb  Mt. 
Fuji  every  summer.  The  number  of  pilgrims  to  Kom- 
pira,  in  Shikoku,  is  incredibly  large;  according  to  the 
count  taken  during  the  first  half  of  1898,  the  first  ever 
taken,  the  average  for  six  months  was  2500  each  day ; 
at  this  rate  the  number  for  the  year  is  nearly  900,000. 
The  highest  for  a  single  day  was  over  12,000.  These 
figures  were  given  me  by  the  chief  of^cial  of  this  district. 
The  highest  mountain  in  Shikoku,  Tshidzuchi  San,  some 
six  thousand  feet  in  height,  is  said  to  be  ascended  by 
ten  thousand  pilgrims  eaoli  summer.  These  pilgrims 
eat  little  or  nothing  at  hotels,  (Upending  rather  on  what 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS?      291 

they  carry  until  they  return  from  their  arduous  three 
days'  chmb;  nor  do  they  take  any  prolonged  rest  until 
they  are  on  the  homeward  way.  The  reason  for  this 
is  that  the  climb  is  supposed  to  be  a  test  of  the  heart; 
if  the  pilgrim  fail  to  reach  the  summit,  the  inference  is 
that  he  is  at  fault,  and  that  the  god  does  not  favor  him. 
They  who  ofTer  their  prayers  from  the  summit  are  sup- 
posed to  be  assured  of  having  them  answered. 

But  beside  these  greater  pilgrimages  to  mountain 
summits  and  national  shrines,  innumerable  lesser  ones 
are  made.  Each  district  has  a  more  or  less  extended 
circuit  of  its  own.  In  Shikoku  there  is  a  round  known 
as  the  "  Hachi-Ju-hakka  sho  mairi,"  or  "  The  Pilgrim- 
age to  the  88  Places,"  supposed  to  be  the  round 
once  made  by  Kobo  Daishi  (a.  d.  774-834),  the 
founder  of  the  Shinton  sect  of  Buddhism.  The  number 
of  pilgrims  who  make  this  round  is  exceedingly  large, 
since  it  is  a  favorite  circuit  for  the  people  not  only  of 
Shikoku,  but  also  of  central  and  western  Japan.  Many 
of  the  pilgrims  wear  on  the  back,  just  below  the  neck, 
a  pair  of  curious  miniature  "  waraji  "  or  straw  sandals, 
because  Kobo  Daishi  carried  a  real  pair  along  with 
him  on  his  journey.  I  never  go  to  Ishite  Temple  (just 
out  of  Matsuyama),  one  of  the  eighty-eight  places  of 
the  circuit,  without  seeing  some  of  these  pilgrims.  But 
this  must  suffice.  The  pilgrim  habit  of  the  Japanese 
is  a  strong  proof  of  widespread  religious  enthusiasm, 
and  throws  much  light  on  the  religious  nature  of  the 
people.  There  seems  to  be  reason  for  thinking  that 
the  custom  existed  in  Japan  even  before  the  introduc- 
tion of  Buddhism.  If  this  is  correct,  it  bears  powerful 
testimony  to  the  inherently  religious  nature  of  the 
Japanese  race. 

The  charge  has  been  made  that  these  pilgrimages  are 
mere  pleasure  excursions.  Mr.  Lowell  says,  face- 
tiously, that  "  They  are  peripatetic  picnic  parties,  faintly 
flavored  with  piety;  just  a  sufficient  suspicion  of  it  to 
render  them  acceptable  to  the  easy-going  gods."  Be- 
neath this  light  alliterative  style,  which  delights  the  liter- 
ary reader,  do  we  find  the  truth?  To  me  it  seems  like 
a  slur  on  the  pilgrims,  evidently  due  to  Mr.  Lowell's 


292       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

idea  that  a  genuine  religious  feeling  must  be  gloomy 
and  solemn.  Joy  may  seem  to  him  incompatible  with 
heartfelt  religion  and  aspiration.  Tliat  these  pilgrims 
lack  the  religious  aspiration  characteristic  of  highly 
developed  Christians  of  the  West,  is,  of  course,  true; 
but  that  they  have  a  certain  type  of  religious  aspira- 
tion is  equally  indisputable.  They  have  definite  and 
strong  ideas  as  to  the  advantage  of  prayer  at  the  vari- 
ous shrines;  they  confidently  believe  that  their  welfare, 
both  in  this  world  and  the  next,  will  be  vitally  affected 
by  such  pilgrimages  and  such  a  faithful  worship.  It 
is  customary  for  pilgrims,  who  make  extended  journeys, 
to  carry  what  may  be  called  a  passbook,  in  which  seals 
are  placed  by  the  officials  of  each  shrine.  This  is  evi- 
dence to  friends  and  to  die  pilgrim  himself,  in  after 
years,  of  the  reality  of  his  long  and  tedious  pilgrimage. 
Beggars  before  these  shrines  are  apt  to  display  these 
passbooks  as  an  evidence  of  their  worthiness  and  need. 
For  many  a  pilgrim  supports  himself,  during  his  pil- 
grimage, entirely  by  begging. 

Pilgrims  also  buy  from  each  shrine  of  note  some 
charm,  "  o  mamori,"  "  honorable  preserver,"  and  "  o 
fuda,"  "  honorable  ticket,"  which  to  them  are  exceed- 
ingly precious.  There  is  hardly  a  house  in  Japan  but 
has  some,  often  many,  of  these  charms,  either  nailed 
on  the  front  door  or  placed  on  the  god-shelf.  I  have 
seen  a  score  nailed  one  above  another.  In  some  cases 
the  year-names  are  still  legible,  and  show  considerable 
age.  The  sale  of  charms  is  a  source  of  no  little  revenue 
to  the  temples,  in  some  cases  amounting  to  thousands 
of  yen  annually.  We  may  smile  at  the  ignorance  and 
superstition  which  these  facts  reveal,  but,  as  I  already 
remarked,  these  are  external  features,  the  material  ex- 
pression or  clothing,  so  to  speak,  of  the  inner  life. 
Their  particular  form  is  due  to  deficient  intellectual  de- 
velopment. I  do  not  defend  them ;  I  merely  maintain 
that  their  existence  shows  conclusively  the  possession 
by  the  people  at  large  of  a  real  religious  emotion  and 
purpose.  If  so,  they  arc  not  to  be  sneered  at,  altliough 
the  mood  of  the  average  iiil^rini  may  be  clircM-ful.  and 
the  ordinary  pilgrimage  may  ha\c  the  aspect  o\  a  "  per- 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS?      293 

ipatetic  picnic,  faintly  flavored  with  piety."  The  outside 
observer,  such  as  the  foreigner  of  necessity  is,  is  quick 
to  detect  the  picnic  quahty,  but  he  cannot  so  easily  dis- 
cern the  reHgious  significance  or  the  inner  thoughts 
and  emotions  of  the  pilgrims.  The  former  is  discerni- 
ble at  a  glance,  without  knowledge  of  the  Japanese  lan- 
guage or  sympathy  with  the  religious  heart;  the  latter 
can  be  discovered  only  by  him  who  intimately  under- 
stands the  people,  their  language  and  their  religion. 

If  religion  were  necessarily  gloomy,  festivals  and 
merry-making  would  be  valid  proof  of  Japanese  re- 
ligious deficiency.  But  such  is  not  the  case.  Primitive 
religions,  like  primitive  people,  are  artless  and  simple  in 
religious  joy  as  in  all  the  aspects  of  their  life.  Devel- 
oped races  increasingly  discover  the  seriousness  of 
living,  and  become  correspondingly  reflective,  if  not 
positively  gloomy.  Religion  shares  this  transforma- 
tion. But  those  religions  in  which  salvation  is  a  promi- 
nent idea,  and  whose  nature  is  such  as  to  satisfy  at 
once  the  head  and  the  heart,  restore  joyousness  as  a 
necessary  consequence.  While  certain  aspects  of 
Christianity  certainly  have  a  gloomy  look, — which 
its  critics  are  much  disposed  to  exaggerate,  and  then 
to  condemn, — yet  Christianity  at  heart  is  a  re- 
ligion of  profound  joy,  and  this  feature  shows  itself 
in  such  universal  festivals  as  Christmas  and  Easter. 
Even  though  the  Japanese  popular  religious  life  showed 
itself  exclusively  in  festivals  and  on  occasions  of  joy, 
therefore,  that  would  not  prove  them  to  be  inherently 
lacking  in  religious  nature. 

But  there  is  another  set  of  phenomena,  even  more 
impressive  to  the  candid  and  sympathetic  student.  It 
is  the  presence  in  every  home  of  the  "  Butsu-dan,"  or 
Buddha  shelf,  and  the  "  Kami-dana,"  or  God  shelf.  The 
former  is  Buddhist,  and  the  latter  Shinto.  Exclusive 
Shintoists,  who  are  rare,  have  the  latter  alone.  Where 
both  are  found,  the  "  I-hai,"  ancestral  memorial  tablets, 
are  placed  on  the  "  Butsu-dan " ;  otherwise  they  are 
placed  on  the  "  Kami-dana."  The  Kami-dana  are 
always  quite  simple,  as  are  all  Shinto  charms  and 
utensils.     The    Butsu-dan    are    usually    elaborate    and 


294       EVOLUTION    OF    THE    JAPANESE 

beautiful,  and  sometimes  large  and  costly.  The  uni- 
versality of  these  tokens  of  family  religion,  and  the  con- 
stant and  loving  care  bestowed  upon  them,  are  strik- 
ing testimony  to  the  universality  of  the  religion  in 
Japan.  The  pathos  of  life  is  often  revealed  by  the  faith- 
ful devotion  of  the  mother  to  these  silent  representa- 
tives of  divine  beings  and  departed  ancestors  or  chil- 
dren. I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that,  so  far  as 
external  appearances  go,  the  average  home  in  Japan 
is  far  more  religious  than  the  average  home  in  en- 
lightened England  or  America,  especially  when  com- 
pared with  such  as  have  no  family  w^orship.  There 
may  be  a  genuine  religious  life  in  these  A\''estern  homes, 
but  it  does  not  appear  to  the  casual  visitor.  Yet  no 
casual  visitor  can  enter  a  Japanese  home,  without  seeing 
at  once  the  evidences  of  some  sort,  at  least,  of  religious 
life. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  believe,  as  many  assert,  that 
all  is  mere  custom  and  hollow  form,  without  any  kernel 
of  meaning  or  sincerity.  Customs  ma}'  outlast  beliefs 
for  a  time,  and  this  is  particularly  the  case  with  religious 
customs;  for  the  form  is  so  often  taken  to  involve  the 
very  essence  of  the  reality.  But  customs  which  have 
lost  all  significance,  and  all  belief,  inevitably  dwindle 
and  fade  away,  even  if  not  suddenly  rejected;  they  reman 
as  "  survivals,"  as  Prof.  Tyler  has  happily  called 
them;  they  leave  their  trace  indeed,  but  so  faintly  that 
only  the  student  of  primitive  customs  can  detect  them 
and  recognize  their  original  nature  and  purpose.  The 
Butsu-dan  and  Kami-dana  do  not  belong  to  this  order 
of  beliefs.  The  average  home  of  Japan  would  feel  itself 
desecrated  were  these  to  be  forcibly  removed.  The 
piety  of  the  home  centers,  in  large  measure,  about  these 
expressions  of  the  religious  heart.  Their  practical  uni- 
versality is  a  significant  witness  to  the  ]")osscssion  by  the 
people  at  large  of  a  religious  nature. 

If  it  is  fair  to  argue  that  the  Christian  religion  has  a 
vital  hold  on  the  Western  peoples  because  <>f  the  cathe- 
drals and  churches  to  be  found  througliout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  Christendom,  a  similar  argument  apjilies 
to  Japan  and  the  hold  of  the  religions  of  this  land  upon 


ARE    THE    JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS?       295 

its  people.  For  over  a  thousand  years  the  external 
manifestations  of  religion  in  architecture  have  been 
elaborate.  Temples  of  enormous  size,  comparing  not 
unfavorably  with  the  cathedrals  of  Europe  as  regards  the 
cost  of  erection,  are  to  be  found  in  all  parts  of  the  land. 
Immense  temple  bells  of  bronze,  colossal  statues  of 
Buddha,  and  lesser  ones  of  saints  and  worthies  innumer- 
able, bear  witness  to  the  lavish  use  of  wealth  in  the  ex- 
pression of  religious  devotion.  It  is  sometimes  said  that 
Buddhism  is  moribund  in  Japan.  It  is  seriously  asserted 
that  its  temples  are  falling  into  decay.  This  is  no  more 
true  of  the  temples  of  Buddhism  in  Japan,  than  of  the 
cathedrals  of  Christendom.  Local  causes  greatly  affect 
the  prosperity  of  the  various  temples.  Some  are  falling 
into  decay,  but  others  are  being  repaired,  and  new  ones 
are  being  built.  No  one  can  have  visited  any  shrine  of 
note  without  observing  the  large  number  of  signboards 
along  either  side  of  the  main  approach,  on  which  are 
written  the  sums  contributed  for  the  building  or  repair- 
ing of  the  temple.  These  gifts  are  often  munificent, 
single  gifts  sometimes  reaching  the  sum  of  a  thousand 
yen;  I  have  noticed  a  few  exceeding  this  amount.  The 
total  number  of  these  temples  and  shrines  throughout 
the  country  is  amazing.  According  to  government 
statistics,  in  1894  the  Buddhist  temples  numbered  71,831 ; 
and  the  Shinto  temples  and  shrines  which  have  received 
official  registration  reached  the  vast  number  of  190,803. 
The  largest  temple  in  Japan,  costing  several  million  dol- 
lars, the  Nishihongwaji  in  Kyoto,  has  been  built  during 
the  past  decade.  Considering  the  general  poverty  of  the 
nation,  the  proportion  of  gifts  made  for  the  erection  and 
maintenance  of  these  temples  and  shrines  is  a  striking 
testimony  to  the  reality  of  some  sort  of  religious  zeal. 
That  it  rests  entirely  on  form  and  meaningless  rites,  is 
incredible. 


XXVI 
SOME  RELIGIOUS  PHENOMENA 

WITHOUT  doubt,  many  traits  arc  attributed  to 
the  Japanese  by  the  casual  observer  or  cap- 
tious critic,  through  lack  of  ability  to  read  be- 
tween the  lines.  We  have  already  seen  how  the  stoical 
element  of  Japanese  character  serves  to  conceal  from 
the  sociologist  the  emotional  nature  of  the  people. 
If  a  Japanese  conceals  his  ordinary  emotions,  much  more 
does  he  refrain  from  public  exhibition  of  his  deeper  re- 
ligious aspirations.  Although  he  may  feel  profoundly, 
his  face  and  manner  seldom  reveal  it.  When  torn  with 
grief  over  the  loss  of  a  parent  or  son,  he  will  tell  you  of 
his  loss  with  smiles,  if  not  with  actual  laughter.  "'  The 
Japanese  smile  "  has  betrayed  the  solemn  foreigner  into 
many  an  error  of  individual  and  racial  character  inter- 
pretation. Particularly  frequent  have  been  such  errors 
in  matters  of  religion. 

Although  the  light  and  joyous,  "  smiling  "  aspect  of 
Japanese  religious  life  is  prominent,  the  careful  observer 
will  come  incidentally  and  unexpectedlv  on  many  signs 
of  an  opposite  nature,  if  he  mingle  intimately  with  the 
people.  Japan  has  its  sorrows  and  its  tragedies,  no  less 
than  other  lands.  These  have  tlieir  pari  in  determining 
religious  phenomena. 

The  student  who  takes  his  stand  at  a  popular  shrine 
and  watches  the  worshipers  come  and  go  will  be  re- 
warded by  the  growing  conviction  that,  although  many 
are  manifestly  ceremonialists,  others  are  clearly  subjects 
of  profound  feeling.  See  that  mother  leadmg  her  tod- 
dling child  to  the  image  of  Binzuru,  the  god  of  healing, 
and  teaching  it  to  rub  the  eyes  and  face  of  the  god  :uu\ 
then  its  own  eyes  and  f;ice.  See  that  pilgrim  before  a 
296 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PHENOMENA        297 

bare  shrine  repeating  in  rapt  devotion  the  prayer  he 
has  known  from  his  childhood,  and  in  virtue  of  which 
he  has  already  received  numberless  blessings.  Behold 
that  leper  pleading  with  merciful  Kwannon  of  the  thou- 
sand hands  to  heal  his  disease.  Hear  that  pitiful  wail 
of  a  score  of  fox-possessed  victims  for  deliverance  from, 
their  oppressor.  Watch  that  tearful  maiden  performing 
the  hundred  circuits  of  the  temple  while  she  prays  for  a 
specific  blessing  for  herself  or  some  loved  one.  Observe 
that  merchant  solemnly  worshiping  the  god  of  the  sea, 
with  offering  of  rice  and  wine.  Count  those  hundreds 
of  votive  pictures,  thanksgiving  remembrances  of  the 
sick  who  have  been  healed,  in  answer,  as  they  firmly  be- 
lieve, to  their  prayers  to  the  god  of  this  particular  shrine. 
These  are  not  imaginary  cases.  The  writer  has  seen 
these  and  scores  more  like  them.  Here  is  a  serious  side 
to  Japanese  religious  life  easily  overlooked  by  a  casual 
or  unsympathetic  observer. 

In  addition  to  these  simpler  religious  phenomena,  we 
find  in  Japan,  as  in  other  lands,  the  practice  of  ecstatic 
union  with  the  deity.  In  Shinto  it  is  called  "  Kami- 
oroshi,"  the  bringing  down  of  the  gods.  It  is  doubtless 
some  form  of  hypnotic  trance,  yet  the  popular  inter- 
pretation of  the  phenomenon  is  that  of  divine  posses- 
sion. 

Among  Buddhists,  the  practice  of  ecstasy  takes  a  dif- 
ferent form.  The  aim  is  to  attain  absolute  vacuity  of 
mind  and  thus  complete  union  with  the  Absolute.  When 
attained,  the  soul  becomes  conscious  of  blissful  superi- 
ority to  all  the  concerns  of  this  mundane  life,  a  foretaste 
of  the  Nirvana  awaiting  those  who  shall  attain  to  Buddha- 
hood.  The  actual  attainment  of  this  experience  is  prac- 
tically limited  to  the  priesthood,  who  alone  have  the  time 
and  freedom  from  the  cares  of  the  world  needful  for  its 
practice.  For  it  is  induced  only  by  long  and  profound 
"  meditation."  Especially  is  this  experience  the  desire 
of  the  Zen  sect,  which  makes  it  a  leading  aim,  taking  its 
name  "  zen  "  (to  sit)  from  this  practice.  To  sit  in  re- 
ligious abstraction  is  the  height  of  religious  bliss. 

The  practical  business  man  of  the  West  may  perhaps 
find  some  difficulty  in  seeing  anything  particularly  re- 


298        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

lig-ions  in  ecstasy  or  mental  vacuity.  But  if  I  mistake 
not,  this  religious  phenomenon  of  the  Orient  does  not 
differ  in  essence  from  the  mystical  religious  experience 
so  common  in  the  middle  and  subsequent  ages  in  Eu- 
rope, and  represented  to-day  by  mystical  Christians. 
Indeed,  some  of  the  finest  religious  souls  of  Western 
lands  have  been  mystics.  Mystic  Christianity  finds 
ready  acceptance  with  certain  of  the  Japanese. 

The  critical  reader  may  perhaps  admit,  in  view  of  the 
facts  thus  far  presented,  that  the  ignorant  millions  have 
some  degree  of  religious  feeling  and  yet,  in  view  of  the 
apparently  irreligious  life  of  the  educated,  he  may  still 
feel  that  the  religious  nature  of  the  race  is  essentially 
shallow.  He  may  feel  that  as  soon  as  a  Japanese  is 
lifted  out  of  the  superstitious  beliefs  of  the  past,  he  is 
freed  from  all  religious  ideas  and  aspirations.  I  admit 
at  once  that  there  seems  to  be  some  ground  for  such  an 
assertion.  Yet  as  I  study  Ibe-^haracter  of  the  samurai 
of  the  Tokugawa  period,  who  alone  may  be  called  the 
irreligious  of  the  olden  times,  I  see  good  reasons  for 
holding  that,  though  rejecting  Buddhism,  they  were  re- 
ligious at  heart.  They  developed  little  or  no  religious 
ceremonial  to  replace  that  of  Buddtlism,  yet  there  were 
indications  that  the  religious  life  still  remained.  Intel- 
lectual and  moral  growth  rendered  it  impossible  for  ear- 
nest and  honest  men  to  accept  the  old  religious  expres- 
sions. They  revolted  from  religious  forms,  rather  than 
from  religion,  and  the  revolt  resulted  not  in  deeper 
superstitions  and  a  poorer  life,  but  in  a  life  richer  in 
thought  and  noble  endeavor.  Muro  Kyu-so,  the  "  Japa- 
nese Philosopher  "  to  whom  we  have  referred  more  than 
once,  rejected  Buddhism,  as  we  have  already  seen.  The 
high  quality  of  his  moral  teachings  we  have  also  noticed. 
Yet  he  had  no  idea  that  he  was  "  religious."  Those  who 
reject  Buddhism  often  use  the  term  "  Shukyo-kusai." 
"  stinking  religion."  For  them  religion  is  synonymous 
with  corrupt  and  superstitious  Buddhism.  To  have  told 
Muro  that  he  was  religious  would  doubtless  have 
offended  him,  but  a  few  ([notations  should  satisfy  anyone 
that  at  heart  he  was  religious  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
term. 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PHENOMENA 


299 


"  Consider  all  of  you.  Whence  is  fortune?  From 
Heaven.  Even  the  world  says,  Fortune  is  in  Heaven.  So 
then  there  is  no  resource  save  prayer  to  Heaven.  Let 
us  then  ask:  what  does  Heaven  hate,  and  what  does 
Heaven  love?  It  loves  benevolence  and  hates  malevo- 
lence. It  loves  truth  and  hates  untruth.  .  .  That  which 
in  Heaven  begets  all  things,  in  man  is  called  love.  So 
doubt  not  that  Heaven  loves  benevolence  and  hates  its 
opposite.  So  too  is  it  with  truth.  For  countless  ages 
sun  and  moon  and  stars  constantly  revolve  and  we  make 
calendars  without  mistake.  Nothing  is  more  certain. 
It  is  the  very  truth  of  the  universe  ...  I  have  noticed 
prayers  for  good  luck,  brought  year  by  year  from 
famous  temples  and  hills,  decorating  the  entrances  to 
the  homes  of  famous  samurai.  But  none  the  less  they 
have  been  killed  or  punished,  or  their  line  has  been  de- 
stroyed and  house  extinguished.  Or  at  least  to  many, 
shame  and  disgrace  have  come.  They  have  not  learned 
fortune,  but  foolishly  depend  on  prayers  and  charms. 
Confucius  said :  '  When  punished  by  Heaven  there  is  no 
place  for  prayer.'  Women  of  course  follow  the  temples 
and  trust  in  charms,  but  not  so  should  men.  Alas! 
Now  all  are  astray,  those  who  should  be  teachers,  the 
samurai  and  those  higher  still  "  (pp.  63-5).  "  Sin  is  the 
source  of  pain  and  righteousness  of  happiness.  This  is 
the  settled  law.  The  teaching  of  the  sages  and  the  con- 
duct of  superior  men  is  determined  by  principles  and 
the  result  is  left  to  Heaven.  Still,  we  do  not  obey  in  the 
hope  of  happiness,  nor  do  we  forbear  to  sin  from  fear. 
Not  with  this  meaning  did  Confucius  and  Mencius  teach 
that  happiness  is  in  virtue  and  pain  in  sin.  But  the 
'  way '  is  the  law  of  man.  It  is  said,  '  The  way  of 
Heaven  blesses  virtue  and  curses  sin.'  That  is  intended 
for  the  ignorant  multitude.  Yet  it  is  not  like  the  Bud- 
dhist '  hoben  '  (pious  device),  for  it  is  the  determined 
truth  "  (p.  66),  "  Heaven  is  forever  and  is  not  to  be  1 
understood  at  once,  like  the  promises  of  men.  Short-  ! 
sighted  men  consider  its  ways  and  decide  that  there  is  no  ' 
reward  for  virtue  or  vice.  So  they  doubt  when  the  good 
are  virtuous  and  fear  not  when  the  wicked  sin.  They  ; 
do  not  know  that  there  is  no  victory  against  Heaven  / 


300        EVOLUTION    OF    THE    JAPANESE 

when  it  decrees  "  (p.  Sj).  "  Reason  comes  from  Heaven, 
and  is  in  men.  .  .  The  philosopher  knows  the  truth  as 
the  drinker  knows  the  taste  of  sake  and  the  abstainer 
the  taste  of  sweets.  How  shall  he  forget  it  ?  How  shall 
he  fall  into  error?  Lying  down,  getting  up,  moving, 
resting,  all  is  well.  In  peace,  in  trouble,  in  death,  in  joy, 
in  sorrow,  all  is  well.  Never  for  a  moment  will  he  leave 
this  '  way.'     This  is  to  know  it  in  ourselves  "  (p.  71). 

One  day,  five  or  six  students  remained  after  the  lecture 
to  ask  Kyu-so  about  his  view  as  to  the  gods,  stating  their 
own  dissatisfaction  with  the  fantastic  interpretations  given 
to  the  term  "  Shinto  "  by  the  native  scholars.  Making 
some  quotations  from  the  Chinese  classics,  he  went  on 
to  say  for  himself : 

"  I  cannot  accept  that  which  is  popularly  called 
Shinto.  .  .  I  do  not  profess  to  understand  the  pro- 
found reason  of  the  deities,  but  in  outline  this 
is  my  idea :  The  Doctrine  of  the  i\Iean  speaks  of  the 
'  virtue  of  the  Gods '  and  Shu-shi  explains  this  word 
'  virtue '  to  mean  the  '  heart  and  its  revelation.'  Its 
meaning  is  thus  stated  in  the  Saden :  '  God  is  pure  intel- 
ligence and  justice.'  Now  all  know  that  God  is  just,  but 
do  not  know  that  he  is  intelligent.  But  there  is  no  such 
intelligence  elsewhere  as  God's.  Man  hears  by  the  ear 
and  where  the  ear  is  not  he  hears  not  .  .  .;  man  sees 
with  his  eyes,  and  where  they  are  not  he  sees  not  .  .  . ; 
with  his  heart  man  thinks  and  the  swiftest  thought  takes 
time.  But  God  uses  neither  ear  nor  eye,  nor  docs  he 
pass  over  in  thought.  Directly  he  feels,  and  directly 
does  he  respond.  .  .  Is  not  this  the  divinity  of  Heaven 
and  Earth?  So  the  Doctrine  of  the  Mean  says :  '  Looked 
for  it  cannot  be  seen,  listened  to  it  cannot  he  heard.  It 
enters  into  all  things.  There  is  nothing  without  it.'  .  . 
'  Everywhere,  everywhere,  on  the  right  and  on  the  left.' 
This  is  the  revealing  of  God,  the  truth  not  to  be  con- 
cealed. Think  not  that  God  is  distant,  but  seek  him  in  \ 
the  heart,  for  the  heart  is  the  House  of  God.  Where 
there  is  no  obstacle  of  lust,  there  is  communion  of  ctne  \ 
spirit  with  llie  God  of  Heaven  and  Earth.    .    .    And  now  I 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PHENOMENA        301 

for  the  application.  Examine  yourselves,  make  the  truth 
of  the  heart  the  foundation,  increase  in  learning  and  at 
last  you  will  attain.  Then  will  you  know  the  truth  of 
what  I  speak  "  (pp.  50-52). 

In  the  above  passage  Dr.  Knox  has  translated  the  term 
"  Shin,"  the  Chinese  ideograph  for  the  Japanese  word 
"  Kami,"  by  the  English  singular,  God.  This  lends  to  the 
passage  a  fullness  of  monotheistic  expression  which  the 
original  hardly,  if  at  all,  justifies.  The  originals  are  in- 
definite as  to  number  and  might  with  equal  truth  be  trans- 
lated "  gods,"  as  Dr.  Knox  suggests  himself  in  a  footnote. 

These  and  similar  passages  are  of  great  interest  to  the 
student  of  Japanese  religious  development.  They 
should  be  made  much  of  by  Christian  preachers  and  mis- 
sionaries. Such  writers  and  thinkers  as  Muro  evidently 
was  might  not  improperly  be  called  the  pre-Christian 
Christians  of  Japan.  They  prepared  the  way  for  the 
coming  of  more  light  on  these  subjects.  Japanese 
Christian  apologists  should  collect  such  utterances  from 
her  wise  men  of  old,  and  by  them  lead  the  nation  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  truths  which  they  suggest  and  for 
which  they  so  fitly  prepare  the  way.  Scattered  as  they 
now  are,  and  seldom  read  by  the  people,  they  lie  as 
precious  gems  imbedded  in  the  hills,  or  as  seed  safely 
stored.  They  can  bear  no  harvest  till  they  are  sown  in 
the  soil  and  allowed  to  spring  up  and  grow. 

The  more  I  have  pondered  the  implications  of  these 
and  similar  passages,  the  more  clear  has  it  become  that 
their  authors  were  essentially  religious  men.  Their  re- 
volt from  "  religion  "  did  not  spring  from  an  irreligious 
motive,  but  from  a  deeper  religious  insight  than  was 
prevalent  among  Buddhist  believers.  The  irrational  and 
often  immoral  nature  of  many  of  the  current  religious 
expressions  and  ceremonials  and  beliefs  became  ob- 
noxious to  the  thinking  classes,  and  were  accordingly 
rejected.  The  essence  of  religion,  however,  was  not  re- 
jected. They  tore  off  the  accumulated  husks  of  exter- 
nalism,  but  kept  intact  the  real  kernel  of  religion. 

The  case  for  the  religious  nature  of  modern,  educated 
Japan  is  not  so  simple.     Irreligious  it  certainly  appears. 


302       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

Yet  it,  too,  is  not  so  irrclis^ious  as  perhaps  the  Occi- 
dental thinks.  Though  immoral,  a  Japanese  may  still 
be  a  filial  son  and  a  loyal  subject,  characteristics  which 
have  religious  value  in  Japan,  Old  and  New.  It  would 
not  be  difficult  to  prove  that  many  a  modern  Japanese 
writer  who  proclaims  his  rejection  of  religion — calling 
all  religion  but  superstition  and  ceremony — is  neverthe- 
less a  religious  man  at  heart.  The  religions  he  knows 
are  too  superstitious  and  senseless  to  satisfy  the  demands 
of  his  intellectually  developed  religious  nature.  He  does 
not  recognize  that  his  rejection  of  what  he  calls  "  re- 
ligion "  is  a  real  manifct^tation  of  his  religious  nature 
rather  than  the  reverse. 

The  widespread  irreligious  phenomena  of  New  Japan 
are,  therefore,  not  difficult  of  explanation,  when  viewed 
in  the  light  of  two  thousand  years  of  Japanese  religious 
history.  They  cannot  be  attributed  to  a  deficient  racial 
endowment  of  religious  nature.  They  are  a  part  of 
nineteenth-century  life  by  no  means  limited  to  Japan. 
If  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  not  to  be  pronounced  in- 
herently irreligious,  despite  the  fact  that  irreligious  phe- 
nomena and  individuals  are  in  constant  evidence  the 
world  over,  neither  can  New  Japan  be  pronounced  irre- 
ligious for  the  same  reason.  The  irreligion  now  so  ram- 
pant is  a  recent  phenomenon  in  Japan.  It  may  not  im- 
mediately pass  away,  but  it  must  eventually.  Religion 
freed  from  superstition  and  ceremonialism,  resting  in 
reality,  identifying  moral  and  scientific  with  religious 
truth,  is  already  finding  hearty  support  from  many  of 
Japan's  educated  men.  If  appeal  is  made  under  the 
right  conditions,  the  Japanese  manifest  no  lack  of  a 
genuine  religious  nature.  That  they  seem  to  be  defi- 
cient in  the  sense  of  reverence  is  held  by  some  to  be 
proof  presumptive  of  a  deficient  religious  nature.  A 
few  illustrations  will  make  clear  what  the  critic  means 
and  will  guide  us  to  an  interj^retation  of  the  phenomena. 
Occidentals  are  accustomed  to  consider  a  religious 
service  as  a  time  of  solemn  quiet,  for  we  foci  ourselves 
in  a  special  sense  in  the  ]:)resence  of  Cod;  His  majesty 
and  glory  are  realities  to  the  believing  worshiper.  T>x\\ 
much    occurs    during    a    Christian    service    in    Japanese 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PHENOMENA        303 

churches  which  would  seem  to  indicate  a  lack  of  this 
feeling.  It  is  by  no  means  uncommon  for  little  chfldren 
to  run  about  without  restraint  during  the  service,  for 
mothers  to  nurse  their  infants,  and  for  adults  to  converse 
with  each  other  in  an  undertone,  though  not  so  low  but 
that  the  sound  of  the  conversation  may  be  heard  by  all. 
I  know  a  deacon  occupying  a  front  mat  in  church  who 
spends  a  large  part  of  service  time  during  the  first  two 
sabbaths  of  each  month  in  making  out  the  receipts  of  the 
monthly  contributions  and  distributing  them  among  the 
members.  His  apparent  supposition  is  that  he  disturbs 
no  one  (and  it  is  amazing  how  undisturbed  the  rest  of 
the  congregation  is),  but  also  that  he  is  in  no  way  inter- 
fering with  the  solemnity  or  value  of  the  service.  The 
freedom,  too,  with  which  individuals  come  and  go  during 
the  service  is  in  marked  contrast  to  our  custom.  From 
our  standpoint,  there  is  lack  of  reverence. 

I  recently  attended  a  young  men's  meeting  at  which 
the  places  for  each  were  assigned  by  written  quotations, 
from  the  Bible,  one-half  of  which  was  given  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  other  half  placed  at  the  seat.  One  quo- 
tation so  used  was  the  text,  "  The  birds  of  the  air  have 
nests,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his 
head."  It  would  hardly  seem  as  if  earnest  Christians 
could  have  made  such  use  of  this  text.  Some  months 
ago  at  a  social  gathering  held  in  connection  with  the  an- 
nual meeting  of  the  churches  of  Shikoku,  one  of  the 
comic  performances  consisted  in  the  efifort  on  the  part  of 
three  old  men  to  sing  through  to  the  end  without  a 
break-down  the  song  which  to  us  is  so  sacred,  "  Rock  of 
Ages,  cleft  for  me."  Only  one  man  succeeded,  the 
others  going  through  a  course  of  quavers  and  breaks 
which  was  exceedingly  laughable,  but  absolutely  irrever- 
ent. The  lack  of  reverence  which  has  sometimes  char- 
acterized the  social  side  of  the  Christmas  services  in 
Japan  has  been  the  source  of  frequent  regret  to  the  mis- 
sionaries. In  a  social  gathering  of  earnest  young  Chris- 
tians recently,  a  game  demanding  forfeits  was  played; 
these  consisted  of  the  recitation  of  familiar  texts  from 
the  Bible.  There  certainly  seems  to  be  a  lack  of  the 
sense  of  the  fitness  of  things. 


304       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

But  the  question  is,  are  these  practices  due  to  an  in- 
herent deficiency  of  reverence,  arising  from  the  character 
of  the  Japanese  nature,  or  are  they  due  rather  to  the  re- 
hgious  history  of  the  past  and  the  conditions  of  the 
present?  That  the  latter  seems  to  me  the  correct  view  I 
need  hardly  state.  The  fact  that  the  Japanese  are  an 
emotional  people  renders  it  probable,  a  priori,  that  under 
suitable  conditions  they  would  be  especially  subject  to  the 
emotion  of  reverence.  And  when  we  look  at  their  his- 
tory, and  observe  the  actual  reverence  paid  by  the  multi- 
tudes to  the  rulers,  and  by  the  superstitious  worshipers 
to  the  "  Kami  "  and  "  Hotoke,"  it  becomes  evident  that 
the  apparent  irreverence  in  the  Christian  churches  must 
be  due  to  peculiar  conditions.  Reverence  is  a  subtle  feel- 
ing ;  it  depends  on  the  nature  of  the  ideas  that  possess  the 
mind  and  heart.  From  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  Japa- 
nese Christians  cannot  have  the  same  set  of  associations 
clustering  around  the  church,  the  service,  the  Bible,  or 
any  of  the  Christian  institutions,  as  the  Occidental  who 
has  been  reared  from  childhood  among  them,  and  who 
has  derived  his  spiritual  nourishment  from  them.  All 
the  wealth  of  nineteen  centuries  of  experience  has  tended 
to  give  our  services  and  our  churches  special  religious 
value  in  our  eyes.  The  average  Christian  in  Japan  and 
in  any  heathen  land  cannot  have  this  fringe  of  ideas  and 
subtle  feelings  so  essential  to  a  profound  feeling  of  rev- 
erence. But  as  the  significance  of  the  Christian  con- 
ception of  God,  endowed  with  glory  and  honor,  majesty 
and  might,  is  increasingly  realized,  and  as  it  is  found  that 
the  spirit  of  reverence  is  one  that  needs  cultivation  in 
worship,  and  especially  as  it  is  found  that  the  spirit  of 
reverence  is  important  to  high  spiritual  life  and  vitalizing 
spiritual  power,  more  and  more  will  that  spirit  be  mani- 
fested by  Japanese  Christians.  But  its  possession  or  its 
lack  is  due  not  to  the  inherent  character  of  the  people, 
but  rather  to  the  character  of  the  ideas  which  possess 
them.  In  taking  now  a  brief  glance  at  the  nature  and 
history  of  the  three  religions  of  Japan  it  seems  tlosirable 
to  quote  freely  from  the  writings  of  recognized  authori- 
ties on  the  sui3Ject. 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PHENOMENA        305 

"  Shinto,  which  means  literally  '  the  way  of  the 
Gods,'  is  the  name  given  to  the  mythology  and  vague 
ancestor-  and  nature-worship  which  preceded  the  intro- 
duction of  Buddhism  into  Japan — Shinto,  so  often  spoken 
of  as  a  religion,  is  hardly  entitled  to  that  name.  It  has 
no  set  of  dogmas,  no  sacred  book,  no  moral  code.  The 
absence  of  a  moral  code  is  accounted  for  in  the  writings 
of  modern  native  commentators  by  the  innate  perfection 
of  Japanese  humanity,  which  obviates  the  necessity  for 
such  outward  props.  .  .  It  is  necessary,  however,  to  dis- 
tinguish three  periods  in  the  existence  of  Shinto.  Dur- 
ing the  first  of  these — roughly  speaking,  down  to  a.  d. 
550 — the  Japanese  had  no  notion  of  religion  as  a  separate 
institution.  To  pay  homage  to  the  gods,  that  is,  to  the 
departed  ancestors  of  the  Imperial  family,  and  to  the 
names  of  other  great  men,  was  a  usage  springing  from 
the  same  soil  as  that  which  produced  passive  obedience 
to,  and  worship  of,  the  living  Mikado.  Besides  this, 
there  were  prayers  to  the  wind-gods,  to  the  god  of  fire, 
to  the  god  of  pestilence,  to  the  goddess  of  food,  and  to 
deities  presiding  over  the  sauce-pan,  the  caldron,  the 
gate,  and  the  kitchen.  There  were  also  purifications  for 
wrongdoing.  .  .  But  there  was  not  even  a  shadowy  idea 
of  any  code  of  morals,  or  any  systematization  of  the  simple 
notions  of  the  people  concerning  things  unseen.  There 
was  neither  heaven  nor  hell — only  a  kind  of  neutral-tinted 
Hades.  Some  of  the  gods  were  good  and  some  were  bad ; 
nor  was  the  line  between  men  and  gods  at  all  clearly 
drawn." 

The  second  period  of  Shinto  began  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  Buddhism  into  Japan,  in  which  period  Shinto  be- 
came absorbed  into  Buddhism  through  the  doctrine  that 
the  Shinto  deities  were  ancient  incarnations  of  Buddhas. 
In  this  period  Shinto  retained  no  distinctive  feature. 
"  Only  at  court  and  at  a  few  great  shrines,  such  as  those 
of  Ise  and  Id/.umo,  was  a  knowledge  of  Shinto  in  its 
native  simplicity  kept  up ;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether 
changes  did  not  creep  in  with  the  lapse  of  ages.  Most 
Shinto  temples  throughout  the  country  were  served  by 
Buddhist  priests,  who  introduced  the  architectural  orna- 


3o6       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ments  and  the  ceremonial  of  their  own  rehg'ion.  Thus 
was  formed  the  Ryobti  Shinto — a  mixed  reUgion  founded 
on  a  compromise  between  the  old  creed  and  the  new,  and 
hence  the  tolerant  ideas  on  theological  subjects  of  most 
of  the  middle-lower  classes,  who  worship  mdifferently  at 
the  shrines  of  either  faith." 

The  third  period  began  about  1700.  It  was  introduced 
by  the  scholarly  study  of  history.  "  Soon  the  movement 
became  religious  and  political — above  all,  patriotic.  .  . 
The  Shogunate  was  frowned  on,  because  it  had  supplanted 
the  autocracy  of  the  heaven-descended  Mikados.  Bud- 
dhism and  Confucianism  were  sneered  at  because  of  their 
foreign  origin.  The  great  scholars  IMabuchi  ( 1697-1769), 
Motoori  (1730-1801),  and  Hirata  (1776-1843)  devoted 
themselves  to  a  religious  propaganda — if  that  can  be 
called  a  religion  which  sets  out  from  the  principle  that  the 
only  two  things  needful  are  to  follow  one's  natural  im- 
pulses and  to  obey  the  Mikado.  This  order  triumplied 
for  a  moment  in  the  revolution  of  1868."  It  became  for 
a  few  months  the  state  religion,  but  soon  lost  its  status.* 

Buddhism  came  to  Japan  from  Korea  7'ia  China  in  552 
A.  D.  It  was  already  a  thousand  years  old  and  had,  be- 
fore it  reached  Japan,  broken  up  into  numerous  sects  and 
subsects  dififering  widely  from  each  other  and  from  the 
original  teaching  of  Sakya  Muni.  After  two  centuries 
of  propagandism  it  conquered  the  land  and  absorbed  the 
religious  life  of  the  people,  though  Shinto  was  never 
entirely  suppressed.  "  All  education  was  for  centuries  in 
Buddhist  hands ;  Buddhism  introduced  art,  and  medicine, 
molded  the  folklore  of  the  country,  created  its  dramatic 
poetry,  deeply  influenced  politics  and  every  sphere  of  social 
and  intellectual  activity.  In  a  word.  Buddhism  was  the 
teacher  under  whose  instruction  the  Japanese  nation  grew 
up.  As  a  nation  they  are  now  grossly  forgetful  of  this 
fact.  Ask  an  educated  Japanese  a  question  about  Bud- 
dhism, and  ten  to  one  he  will  smile  in  your  face.  A  hun- 
dred to  one  that  he  knows  nothing  about  the  subject  and 
glories  in  his  nescience."  "  The  complicated  meta- 
physics of  Buddhism  have  awakened  no  interest  in  the 
Japanese  nation.  Another  fact,  curious  but  true,  is  that 
these  people  have  never  been  at  the  trouble  to  translate 
♦  Chamberlain's  "  Things  Japanese,"  p.  358. 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PHENOMENA        307 

the  Buddhist  canon  into  their  own  language.  The  priests 
use  a  Chinese  version,  and  the  laity  no  version  at  all, 
though  .  .  .  they  would  seem  to  have  been  given  to 
searching  the  Scriptures  a  few  hundred  years  ago.  The 
Buddhist  religion  was  disestablished  and  disendowed  dur- 
ing the  years  1871-74,  a  step  taken  in  consequence  of  the 
temporary  ascendency  of  Shinto."  Although  Confucian- 
ism took  a  strong  hold  on  the  people  in  the  early  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  yet  its  influence  was  limited  to  the 
educated  and  ruling  classes.  The  vast  multitude  still  re- 
mained Shinto-Buddhists. 

As  for  doctrine,  philosophic  Buddhism  with  its  dogmas 
of  salvation  through  intellectual  enlightenment,  by  means 
of  self-perfecting,  with  its  goal  of  absorption  into  Nir- 
vana, has  doubtless  been  the  belief  and  aim  of  the  few. 
But  such  Buddhism  was  too  deep  for  the  multitudes. 
"  By  the  aid  of  hoben,  or  pious  devices,  the  priesthood  has 
played  into  the  hands  of  popular  superstition.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  there  have  been  evolved  charms,  amulets,  pil- 
grimages, and  gorgeous  temple  services,  in  which  the 
people  worship  not  only  the  Buddha,  who  was  himself  an 
agnostic,  but  his  disciple,  and  even  such  abstractions  as 
Amida,  which  are  mistaken  for  actual  divine  person- 
ages."* The  deities  of  Shinto  have  been  more  or  less 
confused  with  those  of  popular  Buddhism ;  in  some  cases, 
inextricably  so. 

Confucianism,  as  known  in  Japan,  was  the  elaborated 
doctrine  of  Confucius.  "  He  confined  himself  to  practical 
details  of  morals  and  government,  and  took  submission  to 
parents  and  political  rulers  as  the  corner  stone  of  his  sys- 
tem. The  result  is  a  set  of  moral  truths — some  would 
say  truisms — of  a  very  narrow  scope,  and  of  dry 
ceremonial  observances,  political  rather  than  personal." 
"  Originally  introduced  into  Japan  early  in  the  Christian 
era,  along  with  other  products  of  Chinese  civilization,  the 
Confucian  philosophy  lay  dormant  during  the  middle 
ages,  the  period  of  the  supremacy  of  Buddhism.  It 
awoke  with  a  start  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  when  Iccasu,  the  great  warrior,  ruler,  and  patron 
of  learning,  caused  the  Confucian  classics  to  be  printed  in 
*"  Things  Japanese,"  p.  70,  and  Murray's  "Hand-book  for 
Japan,"  p.  37. 


3o8       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

Japan  for  the  first  time.  During  the  two-  hundred  and 
fifty  years  that  followed,  the  intellect  of  the  country  was 
molded  by  Confucian  ideas.  Confucius  himself  had,  it 
is  true,  labored  for  the  establishment  of  a  centralized 
monarchy.  But  his  main  doctrine  of  unquestioning  sub- 
mission to  rulers  and  parents  fitted  in  perfectly  with  the 
feudal  ideas  of  Old  Japan ;  and  the  conviction  of  the  para- 
mount importance  of  such  subordination  lingers  on,  an 
element  of  stability,  in  spite  of  the  recent  social  cataclysm 
which  has  involved  Japanese  Confucianism,  properly 
so-called,  in  the  ruin  of  all  other  Japanese  institutions."  * 

Christianity  was  first  brought  to  Japan  by  Francis 
Xavier,  who  landed  in  Kagoshima  in  1549.  His  zeal 
knew  no  bounds  and  his  results  were  amazing.  "  The 
converts  were  drawn  from  all  classes  alike.  Noble- 
men, Buddhist  priests,  men  of  learning,  embraced  the 
faith  with  the  same  alacrity  as  did  the  poor  and  igno- 
rant. ,  .  One  hundred  and  thirty-eight  Euroj^ean 
missionaries  "  were  then  on  the  field.  "  Until  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  persecution  of  1596  the  work  of  evangeliza- 
tion proceeded  apace.  The  converts  numbered  ten  thou- 
sand }early,  though  all  were  full}-  aware  of  the  risk  to 
which  they  exposed  themselves  by  embracing  the  Cath- 
olic faith."  "  At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, the  Japanese  Christians  numbered  about  one  million, 
the  fruit  of  half  a  century  of  apostolic  labor  accomplished 
in  the  midst  of  comparative  peace.  Another  half-century 
of  persecution  was  about  to  ruin  this  flourishing  church, 
to  cut  ofif  its  pastors,  more  than  two  hundred  of  whom 
sufifered  martyrdom,  and  to  leave  its  laity  without  the 
offices  of  religion.  .  .  The  edicts  ordering  these  measures 
remained  in  force  for  over  two  centuries."  Tens  of  thou- 
sands of  Christians  preferred  death  to  perjury.  It  was 
supposed  that  Christianity  was  entirely  exterminatctl  by 
the  fearful  and  prolonged  persecutions.  Yet  in  the 
vicinity  of  Nagasaki  over  four  thousand  Christians  wore 
discovered  in  1867.  who  were  again  subject  to  persecution 
imtil  the  prcssm-c  of  foreign  lands  secured  religious  toler- 
ation in  Japan. 

Protestant  Christianity  came  to  Japan  with  the  begin- 
*  "  Things  Japanese,"  p.  93. 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PHENOMENA        309 

ning  of  the  new  era,  and  has  been  preached  with  much 
zeal  and  moderate  success.  For  a  time  it  seemed  des- 
tined to  sweep  the  land  even  more  astonishingly  than  did 
Romanism  in  the  sixteenth  century.  But  in  1888  an  anti- 
foreign  reaction  began  in  every  department  of  Japanese 
life  and  thought  which  has  put  a  decided  check  on  the 
progress  of  Christian  missions. 

This  must  suffice  for  our  historical  review  of  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  Japanese.  Were  we  to  forget  Japan's 
long  and  repeated  isolations,  and  also  to  ignore  fluctua- 
tions of  belief  and  of  other  religious  phenomena  in  other 
lands,  we  might  say,  as  many  do,  that  the  Japanese  have 
inherently  shallow  and  changeable  religious  convictions. 
But  remembering  these  facts,  and  recalling  the  persecu- 
tions of  Buddhists  by  each  other,  of  Christianity  by  the 
state,  and  knowing  to-day  many  earnest,  self-sacrificing 
and  persistent  Christians,  I  am  convinced  that  such  a 
judgment  is  mistaken.  There  are  other  and  sufficient 
reasons  to  account  for  this  appearance  of  changeableness 
in  religion. 

I  close  this  chapter  with  a  single  observation  on  the 
religious  history  just  outlined.  Bearing  in  mind  the 
great  changes  that  have  come  over  Japanese  religious 
thinking  and  forms  of  religion  I  ask  if  religious  phe- 
nomena are  the  expressions  of  the  race  nature,  as  some 
maintain,  and  if  this  nature  is  inherent  and  unchangeable, 
how  are  such  profound  changes  to  be  accounted  for?  If 
the  religious  character  of  the  Japanese  people  is  inherent, 
how  is  it  conceivable  that  they  should  so  easily  adopt 
foreign  religions,  even  to  the  exclusion  of  their  own 
native  religion,  as  did  those  who  became  Buddhist  or 
Confucian  or  Christian?  I  conclude  from  these  facts, 
and  they  are  paralleled  in  the  history  of  many  other 
peoples,  that  even  religious  characteristics  are  not  de- 
pendent on  biological,  but  are  wholly  dependent  on  social 
evolution.  It  seems  to  me  capable  of  the  clearest  proof  that 
the  religious  phenomena  of  any  age  are  dependent  on  the 
general  development  of  the  intellect,  on  the  ruling  ideas, 
and  on  the  entire  conditions  of  the  civilization  of  the  age 
rather  than  on  brain  structure  or  essential  race  nature. 


XXVII 

SOME  RELIGIOUS  CONCEPTIONS 

THE  conceptions  of  the  common  people  in  regard 
to  deity  are  chaotic.  They  beHeve  in  local  spirits 
who  are  to  be  worshiped ;  some  of  these  are  of 
human  origin,  and  some  antedate  all  human  life.  The 
gods  of  the  Shinto  pantheon  are  "  yaoyorodzu  "  in  num- 
ber, eight  thousand  myriads ;  yet  in  their  "  norito,"  or 
prayer  rituals,  reference  is  made  not  only  to  the 
"  yaoyorodzu  "  who  live  in  the  air,  but  also  to  the  "  yao- 
yorodzu "  who  live  on  earth,  and  even  to  the  "  yaoyo- 
rodzu "  who  live  beneath  the  earth.  If  we  add  these 
together  there  must  be  at  least  twenty-four  thousand 
myriads  of  gods.  These  of  course  include  sun,  moon, 
stars,  and  all  the  forces  of  nature,  as  well  as  the  spirits  of 
men.  Popular  Buddhism  accepts  the  gods  of  Shinto  and 
brings  in  many  more,  worshiping  not  only  the  Buddha 
and  his  immediate"  rakan," disciples, five  hundred  in  num- 
ber, but  numberless  abstractions  of  ideal  qualities,  such 
as  the  varieties  of  Kwannon  (Avelokitesvara,  gods  and 
goddesses  of  mercy),  Amida  (Amitabha,  the  ideal  of 
boundless  light),  Jizo  (Kshitigarbha.  the  helper  of  those 
in  trouble,  lost  children,  and  pregnant  women),  Emma  O 
(Yama-raja,  ruler  of  Buddhist  hells),  Fudo  (Achala. 
the  "immovable,"  "  unchangealjle  "),  and  many  others. 
Popular  r)U(ldhism  also  worships  every  man  dead  or  liv- 
ing who  has  liecome  a  "  hotoke."  that  is,  has  attained  lUul- 
dhahood  and  has  entered  Nirvana.  The  gods  of  japan 
are  innumerable  in  theory  and  multitudinous  in  practice 
Not  only  are  there  gods  of  goodness  but  also  gods  of  lust 
and  of  evil,  to  whom  robl)crs  and  harlots  may  pra\  for 
success  and  blessing. 

In   the  Japanese   pantheon    there   is  no  sui~)renu'  god. 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  Roman  Jupiter,  or  the  Greek 
Chronos,  nor  is  there  a  thoroughgoing  divine  hierarchy. 
310 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    CONCEPTIONS       311 

According  to  the  common  view  (although  there  is  no 
definite  thought  about  it),  the  idea  seems  to  be  that  the 
universe  with  its  laws  and  nature  were  already  existent 
before  the  gods  appeared  on  the  scene ;  they  created 
specific  places,  such  as  Japan,  out  of  already  existing 
material.  Neither  in  Shinto  nor  in  popular  Buddhism  is 
the  conception  formed  of  a  primal  fount  of  all  being  with 
its  nature  and  laws.  In  this  respect  Japanese  thought  is 
like  all  primitive  religious  thought.  There  is  no  word 
in  the  Japanese  language  corresponding  to  the  English 
term  "  God."  The  nearest  approach  to  it  are  the  Con- 
fucian terms  "  Jo-tei,"  "  Supreme  Emperor,"  "  Ten," 
"  Heaven,"  and  "  Ten-tei,"  "  Heavenly  Emperor  "  ;  but  all 
of  these  terms  are  Chinese,  they  are  therefore  of  late  ap- 
pearance in  Japan,  and  represent  rather  conceptions  of 
educated  and  Confucian  classes  than  the  ideas  of  the 
masses.  These  terms  approach  closely  to  the  idea  of 
monotheism ;  but  though  the  doctrine  may  be  discovered 
lying  implicit  in  these  words  and  ideas  it  was  never  de- 
veloped. Whether  "  Heaven  "  was  to  be  conceived  as  a 
person,  or  merely  as  fate,  was  not  clearly  thought  out; 
some  expressions  point  in  one  direction  while  others  point 
in  the  other. 

I  may  here  call  attention  to  a  significant  fact  in  the 
history  of  recent  Christian  work  in  Japan.  Although  the 
serious-minded  Japanese  is  first  attracted  to  Christianity 
by  the  character  of  its  ethical  thought — so  much  resem-. 
bling,  also  so  much  surpassing  that  of  Confucius,  it  is 
none  the  less  true  that  monotheism  is  another  powerful 
source  of  attraction.  I  have  been  repeatedly  told  by 
Christians  that  the  first  religious  satisfaction  they  ever 
experienced  was  upon  their  discovery  of  monotheism. 
How  it  affected  Dr.  Neesima,  readers  of  his  life  cannot 
have  overlooked.  He  is  a  type  of  multitudes.  In  the 
earlier  days  of  Christian  work  many  felt  that  they  had 
become  Christians  upon  rejection  of  polytheism  and  ac- 
ceptance of  monotheism.  And  in  truth  they  were  so  far 
forth  Christian,  although  they  knew  little  of  Christ,  and 
felt  little  need  of  His  help  as  a  personal  Saviour.  The 
weakness  of  the  Church  in  recent  years  is  due  in  part,  I 
doubt  not,  to  the  acceptance  into  its  membership  of  num- 


312       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

bers  who  were,  properly  speaking,  monotheistic,  but  not 
in  the  complete  sense  of  the  term  Christian.  Their  dis- 
covery later  that  more  was  needed  than  the  intellectual 
acceptance  of  monotheism  ere  they  could  be  considered, 
or  even  be,  truly  "  Christian,"  has  led  many  such  "  be- 
lievers "  to  abandon  their  relations  with  the  Church. 
This,  while  on  many  accounts  to  be  regretted,  was  never- 
theless inevitable.  The  bare  acceptance  of  the  mono- 
theistic idea  does  not  secure  that  transformation  of  heart 
and  produce  that  warmth  of  living  faith  which  are  essen- 
tial elements  in  the  altruistic  life  demanded  of  the 
Christian. 

Nor  is  it  difficult  to  understand  why  monotheism  has 
proved  such  an  attraction  to  the  Japanese  when  we  con- 
sider that  through  it  they  first  recognized  a  unity  in  the 
universe  and  even  in  their  own  lives.  Nature  and  human 
nature  took  on  an  intelligibility  which  they  never  had  had 
under  the  older  philosophy.  History  likewise  was  seen 
to  have  a  meaning  and  an  order,  to  say  nothing  of  a  pur- 
pose, which  the  non-Christian  faiths  did  not  themselves 
see  and  could  not  give  to  their  devotees.  Furthermore 
the  monotheistic  idea  furnished  a  satisfactory  back- 
ground and  explanation  for  the  exact  sciences.  H  there 
is  but  one  God,  who  is  the  fount  and  cause  of  all  being, 
it  is  easy  to  see  why  the  truths  of  science  should  be  uni- 
versal and  absolute,  rather  than  local  and  diverse,  as  they 
would  be  were  they  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  various 
local  deities.  The  universality  of  nature's  laws  was  in- 
conceivable under  polytheism.  Monotheism  thus  found  a 
ready  access  to  many  minds.  Polytheism  pure  and 
simple  is  the  belief  of  no  educated  Japanese  to-day.  He 
is  a  monist  of  some  kind  or  other.  Philosophic  Bud- 
dhism always  was  monistic,  but  not  monotheistic. 
Thinking  Confucianists  were  also  monistic.  But  neither 
philosophic  Buddhism  nor  Confucianism  emphasized 
their  monistic  elements ;  they  did  not  realize  the  impor- 
tance to  popular  thought  of  monistic  conceptions.  But 
possessing  these  ideas,  and  being  now  in  contact  with 
aggressive  Christian  monotheism,  they  are  beginning  to 
emphasize  this  truth. 

As  Japan  has  had  no  adequate  conception  of  God,  her 


SOiVlE   RELIGIOUS    CONCEPTIONS      313 

conception  of  man  has  been  of  necessity  defective.  In- 
deed, the  cause  of  her  inadequate  conception  of  God  is 
due  in  large  measure  to  her  inadequate  conception  of 
man,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  a  necessary  consequence 
of  the  primitive  communal  order.  Since,  however,  we 
have  already  given  considerable  attention  to  Japan's  in- 
adequate conception  of  man,  we  need  do  no  more  than 
refer  to  it  in  this  connection. 

Corresponding  to  her  imperfect  doctrines  of  God  and 
of  man  is  her  doctrine  of  sin.  That  the  Japanese  sense 
of  sin  is  slight  is  a  fact  generally  admitted.  This  is  the 
universal  experience  of  the  missionary.  Many  Japanese 
with  whom  I  have  conversed  seem  to  have  no  conscious- 
ness of  it  whatever.  Indeed,  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to 
speak  of  to  the  Japanese,  not  only  because  of  the  etiquette 
involved,  but  for  the  deeper  reason  of  the  deficiency  of 
the  language.  There  exists  no  term  in  Japanese  which 
corresponds  to  the  Christian  word  "  sin."  To  tell  a  man 
he  is  a  sinner  without  stopping  to  explain  what  one  means 
would  be  an  insult,  for  he  is  not  conscious  of  having 
broken  any  of  the  laws  of  the  land.  Yet  too  much  stress 
must  not  be  laid  on  this  argument  from  the  language,  for 
the  Buddhistic  vocabulary  furnishes  a  number  of  terms 
which  refer  to  the  crime  of  transgressing  not  the  laws  of 
the  land,  but  those  of  Buddha. 

In  Shinto,  sin  is  little,  if  anything,  more  than  physical 
impurity.  Although  Buddhism  brought  a  higher  con- 
ception of  religion  for  the  initiated  few,  it  gave  no  help 
to  the  ignorant  multitudes ;  rather  it  riveted  their  super- 
stitions upon  them.  It  spoke  of  law  indeed,  and  lust 
and  sin ;  and  of  dreadful  punishments  for  sin ;  but  when 
it  explained  sin  it  made  its  nature  too  shallow,  being 
merely  the  result  of  mental  confusion  ;  salvation,  then, 
became  simply  intellectual  enlightenment ;  it  also  made  the 
consequences  of  sin  too  remote  and  the  escape  from  them 
too  easy.  The  doctrine  of  "  Don,"  suddenness  of  salva- 
tion, the  many  external  and  entirely  formal  rites,  short 
pilgrimages  to  famous  shrines,  the  visiting  of  some  neigh- 
boring temple  having  miniature  models  of  all  the  other 
efficacious  shrines  throughout  the  land,  the  wearing  of 
charms,  the  buying  of  "  o  fuda,"  and  even  the  single 


314       EVOLUTION    OF  THE   JAPANESE 

utterance  of  certain  magic  prayers,  were  taught  to  be 
quite  enough  for  the  salvation  of  the  common  man  fron: 
the  worst  of  sins.  Where  release  is  so  easily  obtained, 
the  estimate  of  the  heinousness  of  sin  is  correspondingly 
slight.  How  different  was  the  consciousness  of  sin  and 
the  conception  of  its  nature  developed  by  the  Jewish 
worship  with  its  system  of  sin  offerings !  Life  for  life. 
Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  efficacy  of  offering  an 
animal  as  an  expiation  for  sin,  it  certainly  contributed 
far  more  toward  deepening  the  sense  of  sin  than  the  rite.' 
in  common  practice  among  the  Buddhists.  So  far  as  I 
know,  human  or  animal  sacrifice  has  never  been  known 
in  Japan. 

In  response  to  the  not  unlikely  criticism  that  sacrifice 
is  the  result  of  profound  sense  of  sin  and  not  its  cause,  I 
reply  that  it  is  both.  The  profound  sense  is  the  experi- 
ence of  the  few  at  the  beginning ;  the  practice  educate? 
the  multitudes  and  begets  that  feeling  in  the  nation. 

Ceremonial  purification  is  an  old  rite  in  Japan.  In  this 
connection  we  naturally  think  of  the  "  Chozu-bachi  " 
which  may  be  found  before  every  Shinto  shrine,  contain- 
ing the  "  holy  water  "  with  which  to  rinse  the  mouth  and 
wash  the  hands.  Pilgrims  and  worshipers  invariably 
make  use  of  this  water,  wiping  their  hands  on  the  towels 
provided  for  the  purpose  by  the  faithful.  To  our  eyes, 
few  customs  in  Japan  are  more  conducive  to  the  spread  of 
impurity  and  infectious  disease  than  this  rite  of  cere- 
monial purification.  No  better  means  could  be  devised 
for  the  wide  dissemination  of  the  skin  diseases  which  arc 
so  common.  The  reformed  religion  of  New  Japan — 
whether  Ruddhist,  Shinto,  or  Christian — could  do  few 
better  services  for  the  people  at  large  than  by  entering  on 
a  crusade  against  this  religious  rite.  It  could  and 
should  preach  the  doctrine  that  sin  and  defilement  of  the 
hearts  are  not  removed  by  such  an  easy  method  as  the 
rite  implies  and  the  masses  believe.  If  retained  as  a 
symbol,  the  purification  rite  should  at  least  bo  reformeil 
as  a  practice. 

Wliether  the  use  of  purificatory  water  is  to  be  traced  to 
the  sense  of  moral  or  spiritual  sin  is  doubtful  to  my  mind ; 
in  view  of  the  general  nature  of  primitive  Shinto.     The 


SOME    RELIGIOUS  CONCEPTIONS       315 

interpretation  given  the  system  by  W.  E.  Griffis,  in  his 
volume  on  the  "  Religions  of  Japan,"  is  suggestive,  but 
in  view  of  all  the  facts  does  not  seem  conclusive.  "  One 
of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  Shinto  "  he  writes, 
"  was  the  emphasis  laid  on  cleanliness.  Pollution  was 
calamity,  defilement  was  sin,  and  physical  purity  at  least 
was  holiness.  Everything  that  could  in  any  way  soil  the 
body  or  clothing  was  looked  upon  with  abhorrence  and 
detestation."  *  The  number  of  specifications  given  in 
this  connection  is  worthy  of  careful  perusal.  But  it  is  a 
strange  nemesis  of  history  that  the  sense  of  physical  pol- 
lution should  develop  a  religious  rite  fitted  to  become  the 
very  means  for  the  dissemination  of  physical  pollution 
and  disease. 

Japanese  personal  cleanliness  is  often  connected  in  the 
descriptions  of  foreigners  with  ceremonial  purification, 
but  the  facts  are  much  exaggerated.  In  contrast  to 
nearly  if  not  quite  all  non-Christian  peoples,  the  Japanese 
are  certainly  astonishingly  cleanly  in  their  habits.  But 
it  is  wholly  unnecessary  to  exaggerate  the  facts.  The 
''  tatami,"  or  straw-mats,  an  inch  or  more  in  thickness, 
give  to  the  room  an  appearance  of  cleanliness  which 
usually  belies  the  truth.  The  multitudes  of  fleas  that  in- 
fest the  normal  Japanese  home  are  convincing  proof  of 
the  real  state  of  the  "  tatami."  There  are  those  who 
declare  that  a  Japanese  crowd  has  the  least  offensive 
odor  of  any  people  in  the  world.  One  writer  goes  so  far 
as  to  state  that  not  only  is  there  no  unpleasant  odor  what- 
ever, but  that  there  is  even  a  pleasant  intimation  of 
lavender  about  their  exhalations.  This  exactly  contra- 
dicts my  experience.  Not  to  mention  the  offensive  oil 
with  which  all  women  anoint  their  hair  to  give  it  luster 
and  stiffness,  the  Japanese  habit  of  wearing  heavy  cot- 
ton wadded  clothing,  with  little  or  no  underwear,  produces 
the  inevitable  result  in  the  atmosphere  of  any  closed 
room.  In  cold  weather  I  always  find  it  necessary  to 
throw  open  all  the  doors  and  windows  of  my  study  or 
parlor,  after  Bible  classes  of  students  or  even  after  the 
visits  of  cultured  and  well-to-do  guests.  That  the 
Japanese  bathe  so  frequently  is  certainly  an  interesting 
*P.  85. 


3i6       EVOLUTION   OF   THE    JAPANESE 

fact  and  a  valuable  feature  of  their  civilization ;  it  indi- 
cates no  little  degree  of  cleanliness ;  but  for  that,  their 
clothing  would  become  even  more  disagreeable  than  it  is, 
and  the  evil  effect  upon  themselves  of  wearing  soiled 
garments  would  be  much  greater.  In  point  of  fact,  their 
frecjuent  baths  do  not  wholly  remove  the  need  of  change 
in  clothing.  To  a  Japanese  the  size  of  the  weekly  wash 
of  a  foreigner  seems  extravagant. 

As  to  the  frequent  bathing,  its  cleanliness  is  exagger- 
ated by  Western  thought,  for  instead  of  supplying  fresh 
water  for  each  person,  the  Japanese  public  baths  consist 
usually  of  a  large  tank  used  by  multitudes  in  common. 
Clean  water  is  allowed  for  the  face,  but  the  main  tank  is 
supplied  with  clean  hot  water  only  once  each  day.  In 
Kumamoto,  schoolgirls  living  with  us  invariably  asked 
permission  to  go  to  the  bath  early  in  the  day  that  they 
might  have  the  first  use  of  the  water.  They  said  that  by 
night  it  was  so  foul  they  could  not  bear  to  use  it.  Each 
hotel  has  its  own  private  bath  for  guests ;  this  is  usually 
heated  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  guests  take  their  baths 
from  four  o'clock  on  until  midnight,  the  waiting  girls  of 
the  hotel  using  it  last.  My  only  experience  with  public 
baths  has  been  mentioned  already.  At  first  glance  the 
conditions  were  reassuring,  for  a  large  stream  of  hot 
water  was  running  in  constantly,  and  the  water  in  the 
tank  itself  was  quite  transparent.  But  on  entering  I 
was  surprised,  not  to  say  horrified,  to  see  floating  along 
the  margin  of  the  tank  and  on  the  bottom  of  it  suggestive 
proofs  of  previous  bathers.  On  inquiry  I  learned  that 
the  tank  was  never  washed  out,  nor  the  water  entirel\ 
discharged  at  a  single  time ;  the  natural  overflow  along 
the  edge  of  the  tank  being  considered  sufficient.  In  the 
interest  of  accuracy  it  is  desirable  to  add  that  New  Japan 
is  making  progress  in  the  matter  of  public  baths.  In 
some  of  the  larger  cities,  I  am  told,  provision  is  some- 
times made  for  entirely  fresh  water  for  each  bather  in 
separate  bathrooms. 

In  view  of  these  facts — as  unpleasant  to  mention  as 
they  are  essential  to  a  faithful  description  of  the  habits  of 
the  people — it  is  clear  that  the  "  horror  of  physical  im- 
purity "  has  not  been,  and  is  not  now,  so  great  as  some 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    CONCEPTIONS      317 

would  have  us  believe.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
condition  in  ancient  times,  it  would  be  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  rite  of  ceremonial  purification  could  arise  out  of 
the  present  practices  and  habits  of  thought.  One  may 
venture  the  inquiry  whether  the  custom  of  using  the 
"  purificatory  water  "  may  not  have  been  introduced  from 
abroad. 

But  whatever  be  the  present  thought  of  the  people  on 
the  general  subject  of  sin,  it  may  be  shown  to  be  due 
to  the  prevailing  system  of  ideas,  moral  and  religious, 
rather  than  to  the  inherent  racial  character.  In  an 
interesting  article  by  Mr.  G.  Takahashi  on  the  "  Past, 
Present,  and  Future  of  Christianity  in  Japan  "  I  find  the 
statement  that  the  preaching  of  the  monks  who  came  to 
Japan  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
produce  a  very  deep  consciousness  of  sin  among  the  con- 
verts. "  The  Christians  or  martyrs  repeatedly  cried  out 
'  we  miserable  sinners,'  '  Christ  died  for  us,'  etc.,  as 
their  letters  abundantly  prove.  It  was  because  of  this 
that  their  consciences  were  aroused  by  the  burning  words 
of  Christ,  and  kept  awake  by  means  of  contrition  and 
confession."  Among  modern  Christians  the  sense  of  sin 
is  much  more  clear  and  pronounced  than  among  the  un- 
converted. Individual  instances  of  extreme  conscious- 
ness of  sin  are  not  unknown,  especially  under  the  earlier 
Protestant  preaching.  If  the  Christians  of  the  last  dec- 
ade have  less  sense  of  sin,  it  is  due  to  the  changed  char- 
acter of  recent  preaching,  in  consequence  of  the  changed 
conception  of  Christianity  widely  accepted  in  Protestant 
lands.  Who  will  undertake  to  say  that  Christians  in 
New  England  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  the  same 
oppressive  sense  of  sin  that  was  customary  in  the  six- 
teenth, seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries?  The 
sense  of  sin  is  due  more  to  the  character  of  the  dominant 
religious  ideas  of  the  age  than  to  brain  structure  or  to 
race  nature.  I  cannot  agree  wdth  Mr.  Takahashi  that 
"  To  be  religious  one  needs  a  Semitic  tinge  of  mind."  It 
is  not  a  question  of  mind,  of  race  nature,  but  of  dominant 
ideas. 

In  this  connection  I  may  refer  to  an  incident  that  came 
under  my  notice  some  years  ago.     A  young  man  applied 


3i8       EVOLUTION    OF  THE   JAPANESE 

for  membership  in  the  Kumamoto  Church,  who  at  one 
time  had  been  a  student  in  one  of  my  Bible  classes.  I 
had  not  known  that  he  had  received  any  special  help  from 
his  study  with  me,  until  I  heard  his  statement  as  to  how 
he  had  discovered  his  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  had  found 
that  need  satisfied  in  Christ.  In  his  statement  before  the 
examining  committee  of  the  church,  he  said  that  when  he 
first  read  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  i  Corinlhians,  he  was 
so  impressed  with  its  beauty  as  a  poem  that  he  wrote  it 
out  entire  on  one  of  the  fusuma  (light  paper  doors)  of 
his  room,  and  each  morning,  as  he  arose,  he  read  it.  This 
practice  continued  several  weeks.  Then,  as  we  continued 
our  study  of  the  Bible,  we  took  up  the  third  chapter  of 
John,  and  when  he  came  to  the  sixteenth  verse,  he  was 
so  impressed  with  its  statement  that  he  wrote  that  beside 
the  poem  from  Corinthians,  and  read  them  together. 
Gradually  this  daily  reading,  together  with  the  occasional 
sermons  and  other  Christian  addresses  which  he  heard 
at  the  Boys'  School,  led  him  to  desire  to  secure  for  him- 
self the  love  described  by  Paul,  and  to  know  more  vitally 
the  love  of  God  described  by  John.  It  occurred  to  him 
that,  to  secure  these  ends,  he  should  pray.  Upon  doing 
so  he  said  that,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  his  un worthi- 
ness and  his  really  sinful  nature  overwhelmed  him.  This 
was,  of  course,  but  the  beginning  of  his  Christian  life. 
He  began  then  to  search  the  Scriptures  in  earnest,  and 
with  increasing  delight.  It  was  not  long  before  he  wished 
to  make  public  confession  of  his  faith,  and  thus  identify 
himself  with  the  Christian  community.  This  brief  ac- 
count of  the  way  in  which  this  young  man  was  brought 
to  Christ  illustrates  a  good  many  points,  but  that  ior 
which  I  have  cited  it  is  the  testimony  it  bears  to  the  fact 
that  under  similar  circumstances  the  human  heart  under- 
goes very  much  the  same  religious  experience,  whatever 
be  the  race  or  nationality  of  the  individual. 

In  regard  to  the  future  life,  Shinto  has  little  specific 
doctrine.  It  certainly  implies  the  continued  existence  of 
the  soul  after  death,  as  its  ancestral  worship  shows,  but 
its  conception  as  to  the  future  state  is  left  vague  in  the 
extreme.  Confucius  purposely  declined  to  teach  anything 
on  this  point,  and,  in  part,  for  this  reason,  it  has  been 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    CONCEPTIONS      319 

maintained  that  Confucianism  cannot  properly  be  called 
a  religion.  Buddhism  brought  to  Japan  an  elaborate 
system  of  eschatological  ideas,  and  so  far  as  the  common 
people  of  Japan  have  any  conception  of  the  future  life,  it 
may  be  attributed  to  Buddhistic  teachings.  Into  their 
nature  I  need  not  inquire  at  any  length.  According  to 
popular  Buddhism,  the  future  world,  or  more  properly 
speaking,  worlds  (for  there  are  ten  of  them,  into  any 
one  of  which  a  soul  may  be  born  either  immediately  or 
in  the  course  of  its  future  transmigrations),  does  not 
differ  in  any  vital  way  from  the  present  world.  It  is 
a  world  of  material  blessings  or  woes ;  the  successive 
stages  or  worlds  are  graded  one  above  the  other  in 
fantastic  ways.  Salvation  consists  in  passing  to  higher 
grades  of  life,  the  final  or  perfect  stage  being  paradise, 
which,  once  attained,  can  never  be  lost.  Transmigration 
is  universal,  the  period  of  life  in  each  world  being  deter- 
mined by  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  individual  soul. 
Here  we  must  consider  two  widely  used  terms 
"  ingwa  "  and  "  mei."  The  first  of  these  is  Buddhistic 
and  the  other  Confucianistic ;  though  differing  much  in 
origin  and  meaning,  yet  in  the  end  they  amount  to  much 
the  same  thing.  "  Ingwa  "  is  the  law  of  cause  and  effect. 
According  to  the  Buddhistic  teaching,  however,  the  "  in," 
or  cause,  is  in  one  world,  while  the  "  gwa,"  or  effect,  is  in 
the  other.  The  suffering,  for  instance,  or  any  misfortune 
that  overtakes  one  in  this  present  life,  is  the  "  gwa  "  or  ef- 
fect of  what  was  done  in  the  previous,  and  is  thus  inevi- 
table. The  individual  is  working  off  in  this  life  the  "  gwa  " 
of  his  last  life,  and  he  is  also  working  up  the  "  in  "  of 
the  next.  He  is  thus  in  a  kind  of  vise.  His  present  is 
absolutely  determined  for  him  by  his  past,  and  in  turn 
is  irrevocably  fixing  his  future.  Such  is  the  Buddhistic 
"  wheel  of  the  law."  The  common  explanation  of  mis- 
fortune, sickness,  or  disease,  or  any  calamity,  is  that  it 
is  the  result  of  "  ingwa,"  and  that  there  is,  therefore, 
no  help  for  it.  The  paralyzing  nature  of  this  conception 
on  the  development  of  character,  or  on  activity  of  any 
kind,  is  apparent  not  only  theoretically  but  actually.  As 
an  escape  from  the  inexorable  fatality  of  this  scheme  of 
thought,  the  Buddhist  faith  of  the  common  people  has 


320       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

resorted  to  magic.  Magic  prayers,  consisting  of  a  few 
mystic  syllables  of  whose  meaning  the  worshiper  may 
be  quite  ignorant,  are  the  means  for  overcoming  the  inex- 
orableness  of  "  ingwa,"  both  for  this  life  and  the  next. 
"  Namu  Amida  Butsii,"  "  Namu  Myo  Ho  Ren  Ge  Kyo," 
"  Namu  Hen  Jo  Kongo,"  are  the  most  common  of  such 
magic  formulas.  These  prayers  are  heard  on  the  lips 
of  tens  of  thousands  of  pious  pilgrims,  not  only  at  the 
temples,  but  as  they  pass  along  the  highways.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  each  repetition  secures  its  reward.  Popular 
Buddhism's  appeal  to  magic  was  not  only  winked  at  by 
philosophical  Buddhism,  but  it  was  encouraged.  Magic 
was  justified  by  religious  philosophy,  and  many  a  "  ho- 
ben,"  "  pious  device,"  for  saving  the  ignorant  was  in- 
vented by  the  priesthood.  It  will  be  apparent  that  while 
Buddhism  has  in  certain  respects  a  vigorous  system  of 
punishment  for  sin,  yet  its  method  of'  relief  is  such  that 
the  common  people  can  gain  only  the  most  shallow  and 
superficial  views  of  salvation.  Buddhism  has  not  served 
to  deepen  the  sense  of  responsibility,  nor  helped  to  build 
up  character.  That  the  more  serious-minded  thinkers  of 
the  nation  have,  as  a  rule,  rejected  Buddhism  is  not 
strange. 

One  point  of  great  interest  for  us  is  the  fact  that  this 
eschatological  and  soteriological  system  was  imported, 
and  is  not  the  spontaneous  product  of  Japan.  The  wide 
range  of  national  religious  characteristics  thus  clearly 
traceable  to  Buddhistic  influence  shows  beyond  doubt 
how  large  a  part  of  a  nation's  character  is  due  to  the 
system  of  thought  that  for  one  reason  or  another  pre- 
vails, rather  than  to  the  essential  race  character. 

The  other  term  mentioned  above,  "mei,"  literally  means 
"  command  "  or  "  decree  " ;  but  while  the  English  terms 
definitely  imply  a  real  being  who  decides,  decrees,  and 
commands,  the  term  "  mei  "  is  indeterminate  on  this 
point.  It  is  frequently  joined  to  the  word  "  Ten,"  or 
Heaven;  "  Ten-mei,"  Heaven's  decree,  seeming  to  imply 
a  personality  in  the  background  of  the  thought.  Yet,  as 
I  have  already  pointed  out,  it  is  only  implied  ;  in  actual 
usage  it  means  the  fate  decreed  by  Heaven ;  that  is, 
fated  fate,  or  absolute  fate.     The  Chinese  and  the  Japa- 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    CONCEPTIONS      321 

nese  alike  failed  to  inquire  minutely  as  to  the  implication 
of  the  deepest  conceptions  of  their  philosophy.  But 
"  mei "  is  commonly  used  entirely  unconnected  with 
"  Ten,"  and  in  this  case  its  best  translation  into  English 
is  probably  "  fate."  In  this  sense  it  is  often  used.  Un- 
like Buddhism,  however,  Confucianism  provided  no  way 
of  escape  from  "  mei  "  except  moral  conduct.  One  of 
its  important  points  of  superiority  was  its  freedom  from 
appeal  to  magic  in  any  form,  and  its  reliance  on  sin- 
cerity of  heart  and  correctness  of  conduct. 

Few  foreigners  have  failed  to  comment  on  the  universal 
use  by  the  Japanese  of  the  phrase  "  Shikataga  nai,"  "  it 
can't  be  helped."  The  ready  resignation  to  "  fate,"  as 
they  deem  it,  even  in  little  things  about  the  home  and  in 
the  daily  life,  is  astonishing  to  Occidentals.  Where  we 
hold  ourselves  and  each  other  to  sharp  personal  respon- 
sibility, the  sense  of  subjection  to  fate  often  leads  them 
to  condone  mistakes  with  the  phrase  "  Shikataga  nai." 

But  this  characteristic  is  not  peculiar  to  Japan.  China 
and  India  are  likewise  marked  by  it.  During  the  famines 
in  India,  it  was  frequently  remarked  how  the  Hindus 
would  settle  down  to  starve  in  their  huts  in  submission  to 
fate,  where  Westerners  would  have  been  doing  something 
by  force,  fighting  even  the  decrees  of  heaven,  if  needful. 
But  it  is  important  to  note  that  this  characteristic  in 
Japan  is  undergoing  rapid  change.  The  spirit  of  abso- 
lute submission,  so  characteristic  of  the  common  people 
of  Old  Japan,  is  passing  away  and  self-assertion  is  taking 
its  place.  Education  and  developing  intelligence  are 
driving  out  the  fear  of  fate.  Had  our  estimate  of  the 
Japanese  race  character  been  based  wholly  on  the  history 
of  Old  Japan,  it  might  have  been  easy  to  conclude  that 
the  spirit  of  submission  to  rulers  and  to  fate  was  a 
national  characteristic  due  to  racial  nature ;  but  every 
added  year  of  New  Japan  shows  how  erroneous  that 
view  would  have  been.  Thus  we  see  again  that  the 
characteristics  of  Japan,  Old  and  New,  are  not  due  to 
race  nature,  but  to  the  prevailing  civilization  in  the  broad- 
est sense  of  the  term.  The  religious  characteristics  of 
a  people  depend  primarily  on  the  dominant  religious  ideas, 
not  on  the  inherent  religious  nature. 


XXVIII 

SOME  RELIGIOUS  PRACTICES 

A  MONO  the  truly  religions  sentiments  of  the  Japa- 
i\  nese  are  those  of  loyalty  and  filial  piety.  Having 
X^X^already  given  thcni  considerable  attention,  we 
need  not  delay  long  upon  them  here.  The  point  to 
be  emphasized  is  that  these  two  principles  are  exalted 
into  powerful  religious  sentiments,  which  have  per- 
meated and  dominated  the  entire  life  of  the  nation. 
Not  only  were  they  at  the  root  of  courage,  of  fidelity, 
of  obedience,  and  of  all  the  special  virtues  of  Old  Japan, 
but  they  were  also  at  the  root  of  the  larger  part 
of  her  religion.  These  emotions,  sentiments,  and 
behefs  have  built  190,000  Shinto  shrines.  Loyalty 
to  the  daimyo  was  the  vital  part  of  the  religion  of 
the  past,  as  loyalty  to  the  Emperor  is  the  vital  part 
of  the  popular  religion  of  to-day.  Next  to  loyalty  came 
filial  piety ;  it  not  only  built  the  cemeteries,  but  also  main- 
tained god-shelves  and  family  ancestral  worship  through- 
out the  centuries.  One  of  the  first  questions  which  man}- 
an  inquirer  about  Christianity  has  put  to  me  is  as  to 
the  way  we  treat  our  parents  living  and  dead,  and  the 
tombs  and  memories  of  our  ancestors.  These  two  re- 
ligious sentiments  of  loyalty  and  filial  piety  were  essential 
elements  of  primitive  Shinto.  The  imported  religions, 
particularly  Confucianism  and  Christianity,  served  to 
strengthen  them.  In  view  of  the  indubitable  religious 
nature  of  these  two  sentiments  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
anyone  can  deny  the  name  of  religion  to  the  religions 
that  inculcate  them,  Shinto  and  Confucianism.  It  shows 
how  defective  is  the  current  conception  of  the  real  nature 
of  religion. 

Despite  the  renlity  of  these  religious  sentiments,  how- 
ever, many  things  are  done  in  Japan   ([uite  opposed   to 
322 


SOME   RELIGIOUS    PRACTICES  323 

them.  Of  course  this  is  so.  These  violations  spring  from 
irrehgion,  and  irrehgion  is  found  in  every  land.  Further- 
more, many  things  done  in  the  name  of  loyalty  and  piety 
seem  to  us  Westerners  exceedingly  whimsical  and  illogi- 
cal. Deeds  which  to  us  seem  disloyal  and  unfilial  receive 
no  rebuke.  Filial  piety  often  seems  to  us  more  active 
toward  the  dead  than  toward  the  living. 

Closely  connected  with  loyalty  and  filial  piety,  and  in 
part  their  expression,  is  one  further  religious  sentiment, 
namely,  gratitude.  In  his  chapter  in  "  Kokoro  "  "  About 
Ancestor- Worship,"  Mr.  Hearn  makes  some  pertinent  re- 
marks as  to  the  nature  of  Shinto.  "  Foremost  among 
the  moral  sentiments  of  Shinto  is  that  of  loving  grati- 
tude to  the  past."  This  he  attributes  to  the  fact  that  "  To 
Japanese  thought  the  dead  are  not  less  real  than  the  liv- 
ing. They  take  part  in  the  daily  life  of  the  people, 
sharing  the  humblest  sorrows  and  the  humblest  joys  .  .  . 
and  they  are  universally  thought  of  as  finding  pleasure 
in  the  offerings  made  to  them  or  the  honors  conferred 
upon  them."  There  is  much  truth  in  these  statements, 
though  I  by  no  means  share  the  opinion  that  in  con- 
nection with  the  Japanese  belief  in  the  dead  there  "  have 
been  evolved  moral  sentiments  wholly  unknown  to  West- 
ern civilization,"  or  that  their  "  loving  gratitude  to  the 
past  "  is  "  a  sentiment  having  no  real  correspondence  in 
our  own  emotional  life."  Mr.  Hearn  may  be  presumed 
to  be  speaking  for  himself  in  these  matters ;  but  he  cer- 
tainly does  not  correctly  represent  the  thought  or  the 
feelings  of  the  circle  of  life  known  to  me.  "  The  feeling  of 
gratitude  of  Western  peoples  is  as  real  and  as  strong  as 
that  of  the  Japanese,  though  it  does  not  find  expression 
in  the  worship  of  the  dead.  That  the  Japanese  are  pro- 
fuse in  their  expressions  of  gratitude  to  the  past  and  to 
the  powers  that  be  is  beyond  dispute.  It  crops  out  in 
sermons  and  public  speeches,  as  well  as  in  the  numberless 
temples  to  national  heroes. 

But  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  to  note  how  often  there 
is  apparent  ingratitude  toward  living  benefactors.  Some 
years  ago  I  heard  a  conversation  between  some  young 
men  who  had  enjo3'ed  special  opportunities  of  travel  and 
of  study  abroad  by  the  liberality  of  American  gentlemen. 


324        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

It  appeared  that  the  young  men  considered  that  instead 
of  receiving  any  special  favors,  they  were  conferring 
them  on  their  benefactors  by  allowing  the  latter  to  help 
such  brilliant  youth  as  they,  whose  subsequent  careers  in 
Japan  would  preserve  to  posterity  the  names  of  their 
benefactors.  I  have  had  some  experience  in  the  line  of 
giving  assistance  to  aspiring  students,  in  certain  cases 
helping  them  for  years ;  a  few  have  given  evidence  of 
real  gratitude ;  but  a  large  proportion  have  seemed  sin- 
gularly deficient  in  this  grace.  It  is  my  impression  that 
relatively  few  of  the  scores  of  students  who  have  received 
a  large  proportion  of  their  expenses  from  the  mission, 
while  pursuing  their  studies,  have  felt  that  they  were 
thereby  under  any  special  debt  of  gratitude.  An  expe- 
rience that  a  missionary  had  with  a  class  to  w^hich  he 
had  been  teaching  the  Bible  in  English  for  about  a  year 
is  illustrative.  At  the  close  of  the  school  year  they  in- 
vited him  to  a  dinner  where  they  made  some  very  pleasant 
speeches,  and  bade  each  other  farewell  for  the  summer. 
The  teacher  was  much  gratified  with  the  result  of  the 
year's  work,  feeling  naturally  that  these  boys  were  his 
firm  friends.  But  the  following  September  when  he  re- 
turned, not  only  did  the  class  not  care  to  resume  their 
studies  with  him,  but  they  appeared  to  desire  to  hav( 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  him.  On  the  street  many 
of  them  would  not  even  recognize  him.  Other  similar 
cases  come  to.  mind,  and  it  should  be  remembered  that 
missionaries  give  such  instruction  freely  and  always  at' 
the  request  of  the  recipient.  In  the  case  cited  the  teacher 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  elaborate  dinner  and  fine 
farewell  speeches  were  considered  by  the  young  men  as 
a  full  discharge  of  all  debts  of  gratitude  and  a  full  com- 
pensation for  services.  This,  however,  is  to  be  said :  the 
city  itself  was  at  that  time  the  seat  of  a  determined  an- 
tagonism to  Christianity  and,  of  course,  to  the  Christian 
missionary;  and  this  fact  may  in  part,  btit  not  wholly, 
accoimt  for  the  appearance  of  ingratitude. 

The  Japanese  pride  themselves  on  their  gratitude.  It 
is,  however,  limited  in  its  scope.  It  is  vigorous  towaril 
the  dead  and  toward  the  Emperor,  but  as  a  grace  of  tlaily 
life  it  is  not  conspicuous. 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PRACTICES         325 

Few  achievements  of  the  Japanese  have  been  more 
remarkable  than  the  suppression  of  certain  reHgious  phe- 
nomena. Any  complete  statement  of  the  religious  char- 
acteristics of  the  Japanese  fifty  years  ago  would  have 
included  most  revolting  and  immoral  practices  under  the 
guise  of  religion.  Until  suppressed  by  the  government 
in  the  early  years  of  Meiji  there  were  in  many  parts  of 
Japan  phallic  shrines  of  considerable  popularity,  at  which, 
on  festivals  at  least,  sexual  immorality  seemed  to  be  an 
essential  part  of  the  worship.  At  Uji,  not  far  from 
Kyoto,  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  for  a  thousand  years 
and  more,  and  the  center  of  Buddhism,  there  was  a  shrine 
of  great  repute  and  popularity.  Thither  resorted  the  mul- 
titudes for  bacchanalian  purposes.  Under  the  auspices 
of  the  Goddess  Hashihime  and  the  God  Sumiyoshi,  free 
rein  was  given  to  lust.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  new 
regime  such  revels  have  been  forbidden  and  apparently 
stopped ;  the  phallic  symbols  themselves  are  no  longer 
visible,  although  it  is  asserted  by  the  keeper  of  the  shrine 
that  they  are  still  there,  concealed  in  the  boxes  on  the 
pedestals  formerly  occupied  by  the  symbols.  When  I 
visited  the  place  some  years  since  with  a  fellow  mission- 
ary we  were  told  that  multitudes  still  come  there  to  pray 
to  the  deities ;  those  seeking  divorce  pray  to  the  female 
deity,  while  those  seeking  a  favorable  marriage  pray  to 
the  male  deity ;  on  asking  as  to  the  proportion  of  the  wor- 
shipers, we  were  told  that  there  are  about  ten  of  the 
former  to  one  of  the  latter,  a  significant  indication  of  the 
unhappiness  of  many  a  home.  Prof.  Edmund  Buckley 
has  made  a  special  study  of  the  subject  of  phallic  wor- 
sh.ip  in  Japan ;  in  his  thesis  on  the  topic  he  gives  a  list 
of  thirteen  places  where  these  symbols  of  phallic  worship 
might  be  seen  a  few  years  since.  It  is  significant  that  at 
Uji,  not  a  stone's  throw  from  the  phallic  shrine,  is  a 
temple  to  the  God  Agata,  whose  special  function  is  the 
cure  of  venereal  diseases. 

But  though  phallic  worship  and  its  accompanying  im- 
morality have  been  extirpated,  immorality  in  connection 
with  religion  is  still  rampant  in  certain  quarters.  Not 
far  from  the  great  temples  at  Ise,  the  center  of  Shintoism 
and  the  goal  for  half  a  million  pilgrims  yearly,  are  large 


326       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

and  prosperous  brothels  patronized  by  and  existing  for 
the  sake  of  the  pilgrims.  A  still  more  popular  resort 
for  pilgrims  is  that  at  Kompira,  whither,  as  we  have  seen, 
some  900,000  come  each  year;  here  the  best  hotels,  and 
presumably  the  others  also,  are  provided  with  prostitutes 
who  also  serve  as  waiting  girls ;  on  the  arrival  of  a  guest 
he  is  customarily  asked  whether  or  not  the  use  of  a  pros- 
titute shall  be  included  in  his  hotel  bill.  It  seems  strange, 
indeed,  that  the  government  should  take  such  pains  to 
suppress  phallicism,  and  allow  such  immorality  to  go  on 
under  the  eaves  of  the  greatest  national  shrines;  for 
these  shrines  are  not  private  affairs  ;  the  government  takes 
possession  of  the  gifts,  and  pays  the  regular  salaries  of 
the  attending  priests.  It  would  appear  from  its  success 
in  the  extermination  of  distinctly  phallic  worship  that 
the  government  could  put  a  stop  to  all  public  prostitution 
in  connection  with  religion  if  it  cared  to  do  so. 

One  point  of  interest  in  connection  with  the  above  facts 
is  that  the  old  religions,  however  much  of  force,  beauty, 
and  truth  we  may  concede  to  them,  have  never  made 
warfare  against  these  obscene  forms  of  \vorship,  nor 
against  the  notorious  immorality  of  their  devotees. 
Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  profound  philosophy  of  life 
involved  in  phallic  worship,  for  many  hundreds  of  years 
it  has  been  a  source  of  outrageous  immorality.  Never- 
theless, there  has  never  been  any  continued  and  effective 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  higher  types  of  religion  to  ex- 
terminate the  lower.  But  Japan  is  not  peculiar  in  this 
respect.  India  is  even  now  amazingly  immoral  in  certam 
forms  of  her  worship. 

Another  point  of  interest  in  this  connection  is  that  the 
change  of  the  nation  in  its  attitude  to  this  form  of  re- 
ligion was  due  largely,  probably  wholly,  to  contact  with 
the  nations  of  the  West.  The  uprooting  of  phallic  wor- 
ship was  due,  not  to  a  moral  reformation,  but  to  a  political 
ambition.  It  was  carried  out,  not  in  deference  to  iniblic 
opinion,  but  wholly  by  government  command,  tlunigh 
without  doubt  the  nobler  opinion  of  the  land  apjiroved 
of  the  government  action.  Rut  even  this  nobler  public 
sentiment  was  aroused  bv  the  Occidental  stimulus.  The 
success  of  the  effort  nmst  be  attributed  nol  a  little  to  the 


SOME    RELIGIOUS    PRACTICES  327 

age-long  national  custom  of  submitting  absolutely  to 
governmental  initiative  and  command. 

Another  point  of  interest  is  that,  in  consequence  of 
official  pressure,  the  religious  character  of  a  large  number 
of  the  people  seems  to  have  undergone  a  radical  change. 
The  ordinary  traveler  in  Japan  would  not  suspect  that 
phallicism  had  ever  been  a  prominent  feature  of  Japanese 
religious  life.  Only  an  inquisitive  seeker  can  now  find 
the  slightest  evidences  of  this  once  popular  cult.  Here 
we  have  an  apparent  change  in  the  character  of  a  people 
sudden  and  complete,  induced  almost  wholly  by  external 
causes.  It  shows  that  the  previous  characteristic  was  not 
so  deeply  rooted  in  the  physical  or  spiritual  nature  of  the 
race  as  many  would  have  us  believe.  Can  we  escape  the 
conclusion  that  national  characteristics  are  due  much 
more  to  the  circle  of  dominant  ideas  and  actual  prac- 
tices, than  to  the  inherent  race  nature  ? 

The  way  in  which  phallicism  has  been  suppressed  dur- 
ing the  present  era  raises  the  general  question  of  religious 
liberty  in  Japan.  In  this  respect,  no  less  than  in  many 
others,  a  change  has  taken  place  so  great  as  to  amount  to 
a  revolution.  During  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  Chris- 
tianity was  strictly  forbidden  on  pain  of  extreme  pen- 
alties. In  1872  the  edict  against  Christianity  was  re- 
moved, free  preaching  was  allowed,  and  for  a  time  it 
seemed  as  if  the  whole  nation  would  become  Christian 
in  a  few  decades;  even  non-Christians  urged  that  Chris- 
tianity be  made  the  state  religion.  What  an  amazing 
volte-face !  Religious  liberty  is  now  guaranteed  by  the 
constitution  promulgated  in  1888.  There  are  those  who 
assert  that  until  Christianity  invaded  Japan,  religious  free- 
dom was  perfect ;  persecutions  were  unknown.  This  is 
a  mistake.  When  Buddhism  came  to  Japan,  admission 
was  first  sought  from  the  authorities,  and  for  a  time  was 
refused.  When  various  sects  arose,  persecutions  were 
severe.  We  have  seen  how  belief  in  Christianity  was 
forbidden  under  pain  of  death  for  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years.  Under  this  edict,  many  thousand 
Japanese  Christians  and  over  two  hundred  European 
missionaries  were  put  to  death.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  it 
may  be  said  that  Old  Japan  enjoyed  no  little  religious 


328       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

freedom.  Indeed,  the  same  man  might  worship  freely 
at  all  the  shrines  and  temples  in  the  land.  To  this  day 
multitudes  have  never  asked  themselves  whether  they  are 
Shinto  or  Buddhist  or  Confucianist.  The  reason  for  this 
religious  eclecticism  was  the  fractional  character  of  the 
old  religions ;  they  supplemented  each  other.  There  was 
no  collision  between  them  in  doctrine  or  in  morals.  The 
religious  freedom  was,  therefore,  not  one  of  principle 
but  of  indifference.  As  Rome  was  tolerant  of  all  religions 
which  made  no  exclusive  claims,  but  fiercely  persecuted 
Christianity,  so  Japan  was  tolerant  of  the  tw^o  religions 
that  found  their  way  into  her  territory  because  they  made 
no  claims  of  exclusiveness.  But  a  religion  that  demanded 
the  giving  up  of  rivals  was   feared  and  forbidden. 

New  Japan,  however,  following  Anglo-Saxon  example, 
has  definitely  adopted  religious  freedom  as  a  principle. 
First  tacitly  allowed  after  the  abolition  of  the  edict  against 
Christianity  in  1872,  it  was  later  publicly  guaranteed  by 
the  constitution  promulgated  in  1888.  Since  that  date 
there  has  been  perfect  religious  liberty  for  the  individual. 

Yet  this  statement  must  be  carefully  guarded.  If  we 
may  judge  from  some  recent  decrees  of  the  Educational 
Department,  it  would  appear  that  a  large  and  powerful 
section  of  the  nation  is  still  ignorant  of  the  real  nature 
and  significance  of  "  religious  liberty."  Under  the  plea 
of  maintaining  secular  education,  the  Educational  De- 
partment has  forbidden  informal  and  private  Christian 
teaching,  even  in  private  schools.  An  adequate  statement 
of  the  present  struggle  for  complete  religious  liberty 
would  occupy  many  pages.  We  note  but  one  important 
point. 

In  the  very  act  of  forbidding  religious  instruction  in 
all  schools  the  Educational  Department  is  virtually  estab- 
lishing a  brand-new  religion  for  Japan,  a  religion  based  on 
the  Imperial  Educational  Edict.*  The  essentially  relig- 
ious nature  of  the  attitude  taken  by  the  government  to- 
ward this  Edict  has  become  increasingly  clear  in  late 
years.  In  the  summer  of  1898  one  who  has  had  special 
opportunities  of  information  told  me  that  I\Ir.  Kinoshita, 
a  high  official  in  the  Educational  Department,  suggested 
*  Cf.  chapter  xxiii.  p.  271. 


SOME   RELIGIOUS    PRACTICES  329 

the  ceremonial  worship  of  the  Emperor's  picture  and 
edict  by  all  the  schools,  for  the  reason  that  he  saw  the 
need  of  cultivating  the  religious  spirit  of  reverence  to- 
gether with  the  need  for  having  religious  sanctions  for 
the  moral  law.  He  felt  convinced  that  a  national  school 
system  without  any  such  sanctions  would  be  helpless  in 
teaching  morality  to  the  pupils.  His  suggestion  was 
adopted  by  the  Educational  Department  and  has  been 
enforced. 

In  this  attitude  toward  the  religious  character  of  en- 
tirely private  schools,  the  government  is  materially 
abridging  the  religious  liberty  of  the  people.  It  is 
abridging  their  liberty  of  carrying  belief  into  action 
in  one  important  respect,  that,  namely,  of  giving  a 
Christian  education.  It  virtually  insists  on  the  ac- 
ceptance of  that  form  of  religion  which  apotheosizes 
the  Emperor,  and  finds  the  sanctions  for  morality  in  his 
edict ;  it  excludes  from  the  schools  every  other  form  of 
religion.  It  should,  of  course,  be  said  that  this  attitude 
is  maintained  not  only  toward  Christian  schools,  but  the- 
oretically also  toward  all  religious  schools.  It,  however, 
operates  more  severely  on  Christian  schools  than  upon 
others,  because  Christians  are  the  only  ones  who  establish 
high-grade  schools  for  secular  education  under  religious 
influences. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  in  the  matter  of  religious 
liberty  the  present  attitude  of  the  government  is  para- 
doxical, granting  in  one  breath,  what,  in  an  important 
respect,  it  denies  in  the  next.  But  throughout  all  these 
changes  and  by  means  of  them  we  see  more  and  more 
clearly  that  even  religious  tolerance  is  a  matter  of  the 
prevailing  social  ideas  and  of  the  dominant  social  order, 
rather  than  of  inherent  race  character.  By  a  single  trans- 
formation of  the  social  order,  Japan  passed  from  a  state 
of  perfect  religious  intolerance  to  one  just  the  reverse, 
so  far  as  individual  belief  was  concerned. 

Taking  a  comprehensive  review  of  our  study  thus  far, 
we  see  that  the  forms  of  Japanese  religious  life  have 
been  determined  by  the  history,  rather  than  by  any  in- 
herent racial  character  of  the  people.  Although  they  had 
a  religion  prior  to  the  coming  of  any  external  influence, 


330       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

yet  they  have  proved  ready  disciples  of  the  religions  of 
other  lands.     The  religion  of  India,  its  esoteric,  and  espe- 
cially its  exoteric  forms,  has  found  wide  acceptance  and 
long-continued  popularity.     The  higher  life  of  the  nation 
readily  took  on  in  later  times  the  religious  characteristics 
of  the  Chinese,  predominantly  ethical,  it  is  true,  and  only 
slightly  religious  as  to  forms  of  worship.     When  Roman 
Catholic  Christianity  came  to  Japan  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, it,  too,  found  ready  acceptance.     It  is  true  that  it 
presented  a  view  of  the  nature  of  religion  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  held  by  Buddhism  in  many  respects,  yet 
in  others  there  was  a  marked  divergence,  as  for  instance, 
in  the  doctrine  of  God,  of  individual  sin,  and  of  the  na- 
ture and  method  of  salvation.     The  Japanese  have  thus 
shown  themselves  ready  assimilators  of  all  these  diverse 
systems  of  religious  expression.     Just  at  present  a  new 
presentation  of  Christianity  is  being  made  to  the  Japa- 
nese ;  some  are  urging  upon  them  the  acceptance  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  form  of  it ;  others  are  urging  the  Greek ; 
and  still  others  are  presenting  the   Protestant  point  of 
view.     Each  of  these  groups  of  missionaries  seems  to  be 
reaping  good  harvests.     Speaking  from  my  own  experi- 
ence, I  may  say,  that  many  of  the  Japanese  show  as  great 
an  appreciation  of  the  essence  of  the  religious  life,  and 
find  the  ideas  and  ideals,  doctrines  and  ceremonies,  of 
Christianity  as  fitted  to  their  heart's  deepest  needs,  as  do 
any  in  the  most  enlightened  parts  of  Christendom.     It  is 
true  that  the  Christian  system  is  so  opposed  to  the  Bud- 
dhistic and  Shinto,  and  in  some  respects  to  the  Confucian, 
that  it  is  an  exceedingly  difficult  matter  at  the  beginning 
to  give  the  Buddhist  or  Shintoist  any  idea  of  what  Chris- 
tianity is.     Yet  the  difficulty  arises  not  from  the  structure 
of  the  brain,  nor  from  the  inherent  race  character,  but 
solely  from  the  diversity  of  hitherto  prevailing  systems  of 
thought.     When  once  the  passage  from  the  one  system  of 
thought  to  the  other  has  been  effected,  and  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  Christian  system  and  life  has  been  appre- 
ciated,— in  other  words,  when  the  Japanese  Buddhist  or 
Shintoist  or  Confucianist  has  become  a  Christian. — he  is  as 
truly  a  Christian  and  as  faithful  as  is  the  Englishman  or 
American. 


SOME    RELIGIOUS   PRACTICES  331 

Of  course  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  he  looks  at  every 
doctrine  and  at  every  ceremony  in  exactly  the  same  way 
as  an  Englishman  or  American.  But  I  do  say  that  the 
different  point  of  view  is  due  to  the  differing  social  and 
religious  history  of  the  past  and  the  differing  surround- 
ings of  the  present,  rather  than  to  inherent  racial  char- 
acter or  brain  structure.  The  Japanese  are  human  beings 
before  they  are  Japanese. 

for  these  reasons  have  I  absolute  confidence  in  the  final 
acceptance  of  Christianity  by  the  Japanese.  There  is  no 
race  characteristic  in  true  Christianity  that  bars  the  way. 
Furthermore,  the  very  growth  of  the  Japanese  in  recent 
years,  intellectually  and  in  the  reorganization  of  the  social 
order,  points  to  their  final  acceptance  of  Christianity  and 
renders  it  necessary.  The  old  religious  forms  are  not 
satisfying  the  religious  needs  of  to-day.  And  if  history 
proves  anything,  it  proves  that  only  the  religion  of  Jesus 
can  do  this  permanently.  Religion  is  a  matter  of  hu- 
manity, not  of  nationality.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the 
world  over,  religions,  though  of  so  many  forms,  are  still 
so  much  alike.  And  it  is  because  the  religion  of  Jesus  is 
pre-eminently  the  religion  of  humanity  and  has  not  a  trace 
of  exclusive  nationality  about  it,  that  it  is  the  true  religion, 
and  is  fitted  to  satisfy  the  deepest  religious  wants  of  the 
most  highly  developed  as  well  as  the  least  developed  man 
of  any  and  every  race  and  nation.  In  proportion  as  man 
develops,  he  grows  out  of  his  narrow  surroundings,  both 
physical  and  mental  and  even  moral ;  he  enters  a  larger 
and  larger  world.  The  religious  expressions  of  his  nature 
in  the  local  provincial  and  even  national  stages  of  his  life 
cannot  satisfy  his  larger  potential  life.  Only  the  religion 
of  humanity  can  do  this.  And  this  is  the  religion  of 
Jesus.  The  white  light  of  religion,  no  less  than  that  of 
scientific  truth,  has  no  local  or  national  coloring.  Perfect 
truth  is  universal,  eternal,  unchangeable.  Occidental  or 
Oriental  colorations  are  in  reality  defects,  discolorations. 


XXIX 

SOME   PRINCIPLES   OF   NATIONAL 
EVOLUTION 

A  ND  now,  having  studied  somewhat  in  detail  various 

IJL  distinctive  Japanese  characteristics,  it  is  important 

JL  A.that  we  gain  an  insight  into  the  general  principles 

which  govern  the  development  of  unitied,  national  life. 

These  principles  render  Japanese  history  luminous. 

Let  us  first  fix  our  attention  on  the  fact  that  every  step 
in  the  progress  of  mankind  has  been  from  smaller  to 
larger  communities.  In  other  words,  human  progress  has 
been  through  the  increasing  extension  of  the  comnnmal 
principle.  The  primitive  segregative  man,  if  there  ever 
really  was  such  a  being,  hardly  deserves  to  be  called  man. 
Social  qualities  he  had  very  slight,  if  at  all ;  his  altruistic 
actions  and  emotions  were  of  the  lowest  and  feeblest  type. 
His  life  was  so  self-centered — we  may  not  call  it  selfish, 
for  he  was  not  conscious  of  his  self-centeredness — that  he 
was  quite  sufficient  to  himself  except  for  short  periods  of 
time.  It  was  a  matter  of  relative  indifference  to  him 
whether  his  kinsmen  survived  or  perished.  His  life  was 
in  only  the  slightest  degree  involved  in  theirs.  The  first 
step  of  progress  for  him  depended  on  the  development  of 
some  form  of  communal  life.  The  primary  problem  of  the 
social  evolution  of  man  was  that  of  taking  the  wild,  self- 
centered,  self-sufficient  man,  and  of  teaching  him  to  move 
in  line  with  his  fellow-men.  And  this  problem  confronted 
not  only  mankind  at  the  beginning,  but  it  has  also  been  the 
great  problem  of  each  successive  stage.  After  the  indi- 
vidual has  been  taught  to  live  with,  to  work  with  and  for, 
and  to  love,  his  immediate  kinsmen  (in  other  words  to 
merge  his  individual  interests  in  those  of  the  family,  and 
to  count  the  family  interests  of  more  inijiortance  than  his 
own),thenext  step  wasto  induce  the  family  to  look  beyond 


NATIONAL    EVOLUTION  333 

its  little  world  and  be  willing  to  work  with  and  for  neigh- 
boring families.  When,  after  ages  of  conflict,  this  step 
was  in  a  measure  secured  and  the  family-tribe  was  fairly 
formed,  this  group  in  turn  must  be  taught  to  take  into  its  /"  '^z' 
view  a  still  larger  group,  the  tribal  nation.  Throughout 
the  ages  the  constant  problem  has  been  the  development 
of  larger  and  larger  communal  groups.  This  general  •'  yj' 
process  has  been  very  aptly  called  by  Mr.  Bagehot  the  r*^ 
taming  process.  The  selfward  thoughts  and  ambitions 
of  the  individual  man  have  been  thus  far  driven  more  and 
more  into  the  background  of  fact,  if  not  of  consciousness. 
The  individual  has  been  brought  into  vital  and  organic 
relations  with  ever-increasing  multitudes  of  his  fellow- 
men.  It  is,  therefore,  pre-eminently  a  process  of  social 
or  associational  development.  It  not  only  develops  social 
relations  in  an  ever-increasing  scale,  but  also  social  quali- 
ties and  ideals  and  desires. 

Now  this  taming,  this  socializing  process,  has  been  suc- 
cessful because  it  has  had  back  of  it,  always  enforcing  it, 
the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  strongest.     What  countless 
millions  of  men  must  have  perished  in  the   first   step ! 
They  consisted  of  the  less  fit ;  of  those  who  would  not,  or 
did  not,  learn  soon  enough  the  secret  of  existence  through 
permanent  family   union.     And  what  countless  millions 
of  families  must  have  perished  because  they  did  not  dis- 
cover the  way,  or  were  too  independent,  to  unite  with  kin- 
dred families  in  order  to  fight  a  common  foe  or  develop  a 
common    food    supply.     And   still   later,   what   countless 
tribes  must  have  perished  before  the  secret  of  tribal  federa- 
tion was  widely  accepted !     In  each  case  the  problem  has  1 
been  to  secure  the  subordination  of  the  interests  of  the     \ 
smaller  and  local  community  to  those  of  the  larger  com-      \ 
munity.     Death  to  self  and  life  to  the  larger  interest  was  J' 
often  the  condition  of  existence  at  all.     How  slow  men 
always  have  been  and  still  are  to  learn  this  great  lesson  of 
history ! 

The  method  whereby  this  taming  process  has  been 
carried  on  has  been  through  the  formation  of  increasmgly 
comprehensive  and  rigid  customs  and  ideas.  Through 
the  development  and  continued  existence  of  a  common 
language,  series  of  common  customs,  and  sets  of  common 


Js- 


334       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ideas,  unity  was  secured  for  the  community ;  these,  indeed, 
are  the  means  whereby  a  group  is  transformed  into  a  com- 
munity. As  the  smaller  comnnniity  gave  wav  to  the 
larger,  so  the  local  languages,  customs,  and  ideas  had  to 
break  up  and  become  so  far  modified  as  to  form  a  new 
bond  of  unity.  Until  this  unity  was  secured  the  new  com- 
munity was  necessarily  weak ;  the  group  easily  broke  up 
into  its  old  constituent  elements.  We  here  gain  a  glimpse 
into  one  reason  why  the  development  of  large  composite 
communities,  uniting  and  for  the  most  part  doing  away 
with  smaller  ones,  was  so  difficult  and  slow. 

The  process  of  absorption  of  smaller  groups  and  their 
unification  into  larger  ones,  when  carried  out  completely 
in  any  land,  tends  to  arrest  all  further  growth,  not  simply 
because  there  is  no  further  room  for  expansion  by  the 
absorption  of  other  divergent  tribes,  but  also  because  the 
"  cake  of  custom  "  is  apt  to  become  so  hard,  the  uniformity 
enforced  on  all  the  individuals  is  liable  to  become  so 
binding,  that  fruitful  variation  from  within  is  effectually 
cut  off.  The  evolution  of  relatively  isolated  or  segre- 
gated groups  necessarily  produces  variety;  and  the 
process  whereby  these  divergent  types  of  life 'and  thought 
and  organization  are  gradually  brought  together  into  one 
large  community  provides  wide  elements  of  variation,  in 
the  selection  and  general  adoption  of  which  the  evolution 
of  the  whole  community  may  be  secured.  But  let  the 
divergent  elements  of  the  lesser  groups  once  be  entirely 
absorbed  by  the  composite  community  and  let  the  "  cake 
of  custom  "  become  so  rigid  that  every  individual  who 
varies  from  it  is  branded  as  a  heretic  and  a  traitor,  and  the 
progressive  evolution  of  that  community  must  cease. 

The  great  problem,  therefore,  which  then  confronts 
man  and  seems  to  threaten  all  further  progress  is,  how  to 
break  the  bondage  of  custom  so  as  to  secure  iocal  or  indi- 
vidual variations.  This  can  be  done  only  through  some 
form  of  individualism.  The  individual  must  be  free  to 
think  and  act  as  experience  or  fancy  may  suggest,  without 
fear  of  being  branded  as  a  traitor,  or  at  least  he  must  have 
the  courage  to  do  so  in  spite  of  such  fears.  And  to  pro- 
duce an  effect  on  the  community  he  nnist  also  be  more  or 
less  protected  in  his  idiosyncrasies  by  popular  toleration. 


NATIONAL    EVOLUTION  335 

He  must  be  allowed  to  live  and  work  out  his  theories,  prov- 
ing whether  they  are  valuable  or  not.  Biit  since  indi- 
vidualism is  just  what  all  previous  communal  develop- 
ment has  been  most  assiduous  in  crushing  out,  how  is  the 
rise  of  individualism  possible,  or  even  desirable?  If  the 
first  and  continued  development  of  man  depended  on  the 
attainment  and  the  maintenance  of  the  communal  princi- 
ple, we  may  be  sure  that  his  further  progress  will  not  con- 
sist in  the  reversal  of  that  principle.  If,  therfore,  indi- 
vidualism must  be  developed,  it  must  manifestly  be  of  a 
variety  which  does  not  conflict  with  or  abrogate  com- 
munalism.  Only  as  the  individualistic  includes  the  com- 
munal principle  will  it  be  a  source  of  strength ;  otherwise 
it  can  only  be  a  source  of  weakness  to  the  community. 
But  is  not  this  an  impossible  condition  to  satisfy?  Cer- 
tainly, before  the  event,  it  would  seem  to  be  so.  The 
rarity  with  which  this  step  in  human  evolution  has  been 
taken  would  seem  to  show  that  it  is  far  more  difficult  to 
accomplish  than  any  of  the  previous  steps.  To  give  it  a 
name  we  may  call  it  conimuno-individualism.  What  this 
variety  of  individuali'Sm  is,  how  this  forward  step  was  first 
actually  taken,  and  how  it  is  maintained  and  extended 
to-day,  we  shall  consider  in  a  later  chapter.  In  the 
present  place  its  importance  for  us  is  twofold.  First  we 
must  realize  the  logical  difficulty  of  the  step — its  apparently 
self-contradictory  nature.  And  secondly  we  need  to  see 
that  fully  developed  and  continuously  progressive  national 
life  is  impossible  without  it.  The  development  of  a 
nation  under  the  communal  principle  may  advance  far, 
even  to  the  attainment  of  a  relatively  high  grade  of  civili- 
zation. But  the  fully  centralized  and  completely  self- 
conscious  nation  cannot  come  into  existence  except  on  the 
basis  of  this  last  step  of  communo-individualism.  The 
growth  of  nationalism  proper,  and  the  high  development 
of  civilization  through  the  rise  of  the  sciences  and  the  arts 
based  upon  individualism,  all  await  the  dawn  of  the  era  of 
which  communo-individualism  is  the  leading,  though  at 
first  unrecognized,  characteristic. 

This  individualistic  development  of  the  communal  prin- 
ciple is  its  intensive  development ;  it  is  the  focalizing  and 
centralizing  of  the  consciousness  of  the  national  unity  in 


336       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

each  individual  member.  The  extensive  process  of  com- 
munal enlargement  must  ever  be  accompanied  by  the  in- 
tensive establishment  in  the  individual  of  the  communal 
ideal,  the  objective  by  the  subjective,  the  physical  by  the 
psychical,  if  the  accidental  association  for  individual 
profit  is  to  develop  into  the  permanent  association  for  the 
national  as  well  as  the  individual  life.  The  intensive  or 
subjective  development  of  the  communal  principle  does, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  take  place  in  all  growing  communities, 
but  it  is  largely  unconscious.  Not  until  the  final  stages 
of  national  development  does  it  become  a  self-conscious 
process,  deserving  the  distinctive  name  I  have  given  it 
here,  communo-individualism.* 

The  point  just  made  is,  however,  only  one  aspect  of  a 
more  general  fact,  too,  of  cardinal  importance  for  the 
sociologist  and  the  student  of  human  evolution.  It  is  that, 
throughout  the  entire  period  of  the  expansion  of  the  com- 
munity, there  has  been  an  equally  profound,  although 
wholly  unconscious,  development  of  the  individual.  This 
fact  seems  to  have  largely  escaped  the  notice  of  all  but  the 
most  recent  thinkers  and  writers  on  the  general  topic  of 
human  and  social  evolution.  The  fact  and  the  importance 
of  the  communal  life  have  been  so  manifest  that,  in  im- 
portant senses,  the  individual  has  been  almost,   if  not 

*  By  the  term  "centralization"  I  mean  personal  centraliza- 
tion. Political  centralization  is  the  gathering  of  all  the  lines  of 
governmental  authorit}'  to  a  single  head  or  point.  Personal 
centralization,  on  the  contrary,  is  the  development  in  the  indi- 
vidual of  enlarging  ctnd  joyous  consciousness  of  his  relations 
with  his  fellow-countrymen,  and  the  bringing  of  the  individual 
into  increasingly  immediate  relations  of  interdependence  with 
ever-increasing  numbers  of  his  fellow-men,  economically,  intel- 
lectually, and  spiritually.  These  enlarging  relations  and  the 
consciousness  of  them  must  be  loyally  and  joyfully  accepted. 
They  .should  arouse  enthusiasm.  The  real  anity  of  society,  crue 
national  centralization,  includes  both  che  political  und  the  per- 
sonal phase.  The  more  conscious  the  process  and  tiie  relation, 
the  more  real  is  the  unity.  By  this  process  each  individual  be- 
comes of  more  importance  to  the  entire  body,  as  well  as  more 
dependent  upon  it.  While  each  individual  beconies  with  in- 
creasing industrial  development  more  specialized  in  economic 
function,  if  his  personal  develoiiment  lias  been  properly  carried 
on,  he  also  becomes  in  mind  and  in  character  a  micro-commu- 
nity, summing  up  in  his  individual  person  the  national  unity  with 
all  its  main  interests,  knowledge,  and  character. 


NATIONAL    EVOLUTION  337 

wholly,  dropped  out  of  sight.  The  individual  has  been 
conceived  to  have  been  from  the  very  beginning  of  social 
evolution  fully  endowed  with  mind,  ideas,  and  brains,  and 
to  be  perfectly  regardless  of  all  other  human  beings.  The 
development  of  the  community  has  accordingly  been  con- 
ceived to  be  a  progressive  taming  and  subduing  of  this 
wild,  self-centered,  primitive  man ;  a  process  of  eliminat- 
ing his  individualistic  instincts.  So  far  as  the  individual 
is  concerned,  it  has  been  conceived  to  be  chiefly  a  negative 
process  ;  a  process  of  destroying  his  individual  desires  and 
plans  and  passions.  Man's  natural  state  has  been  sup- 
posed to  be  that  of  absolute  selfishness.  Only  the  hard 
necessity  of  natural  law  succeeded  in  forcing  him  to  curb 
his  natural  selfish  desires  and  to  unite  with  his  fellows. 
Only  on  these  terms  could  he  maintain  even  an  existence. 
Those  who  have  not  accepted  these  terms  have  been  ex- 
terminated. Communal  life  in  all  its  forms,  from  the 
family  upward  to  the  most  unified  and  developed  nation,  is 
thus  conceived  as  a  continued  limiting  of  the  individual — 
a  necessity,  indeed,  to  his  existence,  but  none  the  less  a 
limitation. 

I  am  unable  to  take  this  view,  which  at  best  is  a  one- 
sided statement.  It  appears  to  me  capable  of  demonstra- 
tion, that  communal  and  individual  development  proceed 
pari  passu ;  that  every  gain  in  the  communal  life  is  a  gain 
to  the  individual  and  vice  versa.  They  are  comple- 
mentary, not  contradictory  processes.  Neither  can  exist, 
in  any  proper  sense,  apart  from  the  other ;  and  the  degree 
of  the  development  of  the  one  is  a  sure  index  of  the  degree 
of  the  development  of  the  other.  So  important  is  "this 
matter  that  we  must  pause  to  give  it  further  consideration. 

Consider,  first,  man  in  his  earliest  stage  of  development. 
A  relatively  segregarious  animal ;  with  a  few  ideas  about 
the  nuts  and  fruits  and  roots  on  which  he  lives ;  with  a 
little  knowledge  as  to  where  to  find  them ;  the  subject  of 
constant  fear  lest  a  stronger  man  may  suddenly  appear 
to  seize  and  carry  off  his  wife  and  food ;  possessing  pos- 
sibly a  few  articulate  sounds  answering  to  words ;  such 
probably  was  primitive  man.  He  must  have  been  little 
removed  from  the  ape.  His  "self,"  his  mind,  was  so 
small  and  so  empty  of  content  that  we  could  hardly  recog- 


338       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

nize  him  as  a  man,  should  we  stumble  on  him  in  the 
forest. 

Look  next  upon  him  after  he  has  become  a  family- 
man.  Living  in  the  group,  his  life  enlarges ;  his  exist- 
ence broadens ;  his  ideas  multiply ;  his  vocabulary  in- 
creases with  his  ideas  and  experiences ;  he  begins  to  share 
the  life  and  thinking  and  interests  and  joys  and  sorrows 
of  others;  their  ideas  and  experiences  become  his,  to  his 
enormous  advantage.  What  he  now  is  throws  into  the 
shade  of  night  what  he  used  to  be.  So  far  from  being 
the  loser  by  his  acceptance  of  even  this  limited  communal 
life,  he  is  a  gainer  in  every  way.  He  begins  to  know  what 
love  is,  and  hate ;  what  joy  is,  and  sorrow  ;  what  kindness 
is,  and  cruelty ;  what  altruism  is,  and  selfishness.  Thus, 
not  only  in  ideas  and  language,  in  industry  and  property, 
but  also  in  emotions,  in  character,  in  morality,  in  religion, 
in  the  knowledge  of  self,  and  even  in  opportunity  for 
selfishness,  he  is  the  gainer.  In  just  the  degree  that 
communal  life  is  developed  is  the  life  of  the  individuals 
that  compose  it  extended  both  subjectively  and  objectively. 
Human  psychogenesis  takes  place  in  the  comnuinal  stage 
of  his  life.     Human  association  is  its  chief  external  cause. 

It  matters  not  at  what  successive  stage  of  man's  devel- 
oping life  we  may  choose  to  look  at  him,  the  depth  and 
height  and  breadth,  in  a  word,  the  fullness  and  vigor  and 
character  of  the  inner  and  private  life  of  the  individual, 
will  depend  directly  on  the  nature  and  development  of  the 
communal  life.  As  the  community  expands,  taking  in 
new  families  or  tribes  or  nations,  reaching  out  to  new 
regions,  learning  new  industries,  developing  new  ideas  of 
man,  of  nature,  of  the  gods,  of  duty,  inventing  new  indus- 
tries, discovering  new  truths,  and  developing  a  new  lan- 
guage, all  these  fresh  acquirements  of  the  community  be- 
come the  possession  of  its  individual  members.  In  the 
growing  complexity  of  society  the  individual  unit,  it  is 
true,  is  increasingly  lost  among  the  millions  of  his  fellow- 
units,  yet  all  these  successive  steps  serve  to  render  his  life 
the  larger  and  richer.  His  horizon  is  no  longer  tlu'  little 
family  group  in  which  he  was  born  ;  he  now  looks  out  over 
large  and  populous  regions  and  feels  the  thrill  of  his 
growing  life  as  he  realizes  the  unity  and  community  of 


NATIONAL    EVOLUTION  339 

his  life  and  interests  with  those  of  his  fellow-countrymen. 
His  language  is  increasingly  enriched ;  it  serves  to  shape 
all  his  thinking  and  thus  even  the  structure  of  his  mind. 
His  knowledge  reaches  far  beyond  his  own  experience; 
it  includes  not  only  that  of  the  few^  persons  whom  he 
knows  directly,  but  also  that  of  unnumbered  millions,  re- 
mote in  time  and  space.  He  increasingly  discovers, 
though  he  never  has  analyzed,  and  is  perhaps  wholly  un- 
able to  analyze,  the  discovery  that  he  is  not  a  thing  among 
things ;  his  life  has  a  universal  aspect.  He  lives  more  and 
more  the  universal  life,  subjecting  the  demands  of  the 
once  domineering  present  to  decisions  of  a  cool  judgment 
that  looks  back  into  the  past  and  carefully  weighs  the 
interests  of  the  future,  temporal  and  eternal. 

Every  advance  made  by  the  community  is  thus  stored 
up  to  the  credit  of  its  individual  members.  So  far,  then, 
from  the  development  of  the  communal  principle  consist- 
ing of  and  coming  about  through  a  limitation  of  the  indi- 
vidual, it  is  exactly  the  reverse.  Only  as  the  individual 
develops  are  communal  unity  and  progress  possible.  And 
on  the  other  hand,  only  where  the  communal  principle  has 
reached  its  highest  development,  both  extensively  and  in- 
tensively, do  we  find  the  most  highly  developed  person- 
ality. The  one  is  a  necessary  condition  of  the  other. 
The  deepest,  blackest  selfishness,  even,  can  only  come 
into  existence  where  the  communal  principle  has  reached 
its  highest  development. 

The  preceding  statement,  however,  is  not  equivalent  to 
saying  that  when  communalism  and  individualism  arose 
in  human  consciousness  they  were  both  accepted  as 
equally  important.  The  reverse  seems  always  to  have 
been  the  case.  As  soon  as  the  tw'O  principles  are  distin- 
guished in  thought,  the  communal  is  at  once  ranked  as  the 
higher,  and  the  individual  principle  is  scorned  if  not  actu- 
ally rejected.  And  the  reason  for  this  is  manifest.  From 
earliest  times  the  constant  foe  which  the  community  has 
had  to  fight  and  exterminate  has  been  the  wanton,  selfish 
individual.  Individualism  of  this  type  was  the  spon- 
taneous contrast  to  the  communal  life,  and  was  ever  mani- 
festing itself.  No  age  or  race  has  been  without  it,  nor 
ignorant  of  it.     As  soon  as  the  two  principles  became 


7 


340        EVOLUTION    OF    THE    JAPANESE 

clearly  contrasted  in  thought,  therefore,  because  of  his 
actual  experience,  man  could  conceive  of  individualism 
only  as  the  antithesis  to  communalism ;  it  was  felt  that 
the  two  were  mutually  destructive.  It  inevitably  fol- 
lowed that  communalism  as  a  principle  was  accepted  and 
individualism  condemned.  In  their  minds  noi  only  social 
order,  but  existence  itself,  was  at  stake.  And  they  were 
right.  Egoistic  individualism  is  necessarily  atomistic. 
No  society  can  long  maintain  its  life  as  a  unified  and 
peaceful  society,  when  such  a  principle  has  been  widely 
accepted  by  its  members.  The  social  ills  of  this  and  of 
every  age  largely  arise  from  the  presence  of  this  type  of 
men,  who  hoid  this  principle  of  life. 

If,  therefore,  after  a  fair  degree  of  national  unity  has 
been  attained,  the  higher  stages  of  national  evolution  de- 
pend on  the  higher  development  of  individualism,  and  if 
the  only  kind  of  individualism  of  which  men  can  conceive 
is  the  egoistic,  it  becomes  evident  that_  further  progress 
must  cease.  Stagnation,  or  degeneration,  must  follow. 
This  is  what  has  happened  to  nearly  all  the  great  nations 
and  races  of  the  world.  They  progressed  well  up  to  a 
certain  point.  Then  they  halted  or  fell  back.  The  only 
possible  condition  under  which  a  new  lease  of  progressive 
life  could  be  secured  by  them  was  a  new  variety  of  in- 
dividualism, which  would  unite  the  opposite  and  appa- 
rently contradictory  poles  of  communalism  and  egoism, 
namely,  communo-'individualism.  Inconceivable  though 
it  be  to  those  men  and  nations  who  have  not  experienced 
this  type  of  life,  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact,  and  a  niighty 
factor  in  human  and  in  national  evolution.  In  its  light 
we  are  able  to  sec  that  the  comnunial  life  itself  has  not 
reached  its  fullest  development  until  the  individualistic 
principle  has  been  not  only  recognized  in  thought,  but 
exalted,  both  in  theory  and  in  fact,  to  its  true  ami  co- 
ordinate position  beside  the  communal  principle.  Only 
then  does  the  nation  become  fully  and  completely  organ- 
ized. Only  then  does  the  national  organism  contain  \yith- 
in  itself  the  means  for  an  endless,  because  a  self-sustained. 

It  is  important  to  guard  against  a  misunderslaiiduig  of 
the  principles  just  enunciated  which  may  easily  arise.     In 


NATIONAL   EVOLUTION  341 

saying  that  the  development  of  the  individual  has  pro- 
ceeded pari  passu  with  that  of  the  community,  that  every 
gain  by  the  community  has  contributed  directly  to  the 
development  of  the  individual,  I  do  not  say  that  the  com- 
munal profits  are  at  once  distributed  among  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  group,  or  that  the  distribution  is  at  all  equal. 
Indeed,  such  is  far  from  the  case.  Some  few  individuals 
seem  to  appropriate  a  large  and  unfair  proportion  of  the 
communal  bank  account.  So  far  as  a  people  live  a  simple 
and  relatively  undifferentiated  life,  all  sharing  in  much 
the  same  kind  of  pursuits,  and  enjoying  much  the  same 
grade  of  life, — such  as  prevailed  in  a  large  measure  in 
the  earlier  times,  and  decreasingly  as  society  has  become 
industrial, — and  so  far  also  as  the  new  acquirements  of 
thought  are  transformed  into  practical  life  and  common 
language,  all  the  members  of  the  community  share  these 
acquirements  in  fairly  equal  measure.  So  far,  however^ 
as  the  communal  profits  consist  of  more  or  less  abstract 
ideas,  embodied  in  religious  and  philosophic  thought,  and 
stored  away  in  books  and  literature  accessible  only  to 
scholars,  they  are  distributed  very  unequally.  The  more 
highly  developed  and  consequently  differentiated  the  so- 
ciety, the  more  difficult  does  distribution  become.  The- 
very  structure  of  the  highly  differentiated  communal  or- 
ganism forbids  the  equal  distribution  of  these  goods.  The 
literary  and  ruling  minority  have  exclusive  access  to  the 
treasures.  The  industrial  majority  are  more  and  more 
rigidly  excluded  from  them.  Thus,  although  it  is  strictly 
true  tliat  every  advance  in  the  communal  principle  ac- 
crues to  the  benefit  of  the  individual,  it  is  not  true  that 
such  advance  necessarily  accrues  to  the  benefit  of  every^ 
individual,  or  equally  to  all  individuals.  In  its  lowest 
stages,  developing  communalism  lifts  all  its  individual 
members  to  about  the  same  level  of  mental  and  moral 
acquirement.  In  its  middle  stages  it  develops  all  indi- 
viduals to  a  certain  degree,  and  certain  individuals  to  a 
high  degree.  In  its  highest  stages  it  develops  among  all 
its  members  a  uniformly  high  grade  of  personal  worth 
and  acquirement. 

Now  the  great  problem  on  whose  solution  depends  the 
possibility  of  continued  communal  evolution  is,  from  this 


342       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

view-point,  the  problem  of  distributing  the  gains  of  the 
community  to  all  its  members  more  and  more  equally.  It 
is  the  problem  of  giving  to  each  human  unit  all  the  best 
and  truest  thought  and  character,  all  the  highest  and 
noblest  ideals  and  motives,  which  the  most  advanced  in- 
dividuals have  secured.  If  we  stop  to  inquire  minutely 
and  analytically  just  what  is  the  nature  of  the  greatest 
attainments  made  by  the  community,  we  discover  that  it 
is  not  the  possession  of  wealth  in  land  or  gold,  it  is  not 
the  accident  of  social  rank,  it  is  not  any  incident  of  tem- 
poral happiness  or  physical  ease  of  life.  It  consists,  on 
the  contrary,  in  the  discovery  of  the  real  nature  of  man. 
He  is  no  mere  animal,  living  in  the  realm  of  things  and 
pleasures,  limited  by  the  now  and  the  here.  He  is  a 
person,  a  rational  being.  His  thoughts  and  desires  can 
only  be  expressed  in  terms  of  infinity.  Nothing  short  of 
the  infinite  can  satisfy  either  his  reason  or  his  heart. 
Though  living  in  nature  and  dependent  on  it,  he  is  above 
it,  and  may  and  should  understand  it  and  rule  it.  His 
thoughts  embrace  all  time  and  all  being.  In  a  very  real 
sense  he  lives  an  infinite  and  eternal  life,  even  here  in  this 
passing  world. 

The  discovery  of  this  set  of  facts,  slowly  emerging  into 
consciousness,  is  the  culmination  of  all  past  history,  and 
the  beginning  of  all  man's  higher  life.  It  is  the  turning- 
point  in  the  history  of  the  human  race.  Every  onward 
step  in  man's  preceding  life,  whereby  he  has  united  to 
form  higher  and  higher  groups,  has  been  leading  onward 
and  upward  to  the  development  of  strong  personality, 
to  the  development  of  individuals  competent  to  make  this 
great  discovery.     But  this  is  not  enough. 

The  next  step  is  to  discover  the  fact,  ami  to  believe  it. 
that  this  infinite  life  is  the  potential  possession  of  every 
member  of  the  community ;  that  the  bank  account  which 
the  community  has  been  storing  up  for  ages  is  for  the 
use  not  only  of  a  favored  few,  but  also  of  the  masses. 
That  since  every  man  is  a  man.  he  has  an  infinite  and 
an  eternal  life  and  value,  which  no  accident  of  birth,  or 
poverty,  can  annul.  Each  man  needs  to  discover  himself. 
The  great  problem,  then,  which  confronts  progressive 
communal  evolution    is  to  take  this  enlarged  definition 


NATIONAL    EVOLUTION  343 

of  the  individual  and  scatter  it  broadcast  over  the  land, 
persuading  all  men  to  accept  and  believe  it  both  for  them- 
selves and  for  others.  This  definition  must  be  carried  in 
full  confidence  to  the  lowest,  meanest,  most  ignorant  man 
that  lives  in  the  community,  and  by  its  help  this  down- 
most  man  must  be  shown  his  birthright,  and  in  the  light 
of  it  he  must  be  raised  to  actual  manhood.  He  must 
"  come  to  himself " ;  only  so  can  he  qualify  for  his 
heritage. 

After  a  nation,  therefore,  has  secured  a  large  degree  of 
unity,  of  the  confederated  tribal  type,  the  step  which  must 
be  taken,  before  it  can  proceed  to  more  complete  national- 
ization even,  is,  first,  the  discovery  of  personality  as  the 
real  and  essential  characteristic  of  men,  and  secondly  the 
discovery  that  high-grade  personality  may  and  can  and 
must  be  developed  in  all  the  members  of  the  community. 
In  proportion  as  the  members  of  the  community  become 
conscious  persons,  fully  self-conscious  and  self -regulating, 
fully  imbued  with  the  idea  and  the  spirit  of  true  person- 
ality, of  communo-individualism,  in  tliat  proportion  will 
the  community  be  unified  and  centralized,  as  well  as  ca- 
pable of  the  most  complex  and  differentiated  internal 
structure.  The  strength  of  such  a  nation  will  be  indefi-  \ 
nitely  greater  than  that  of  any  other  less  personalized  / 
and  so  less  communalized  nation. 


XXX 

ARE   THE   JAPANESE    IMPERSONAL? 

FEW  phases  of  the  Japanese  character  have  proved 
so  fascinating  to  the  philosophical  writer  on  Ja- 
pan as  that  of  the  personality  of  this  Far  Eastern 
people.  From  the  writings  of  Sir  Rutherford  x\lcock.  the 
first  resident  English  minister  in  Japan,  down  to  the  last 
publication  that  has  come  under  my  eye,  all  have  some- 
thing to  say  on  this  topic.  One  writer.  Mr.  Percival 
Lowell,  has  devoted  an  entire  volume  to  it  under  the  title 
of  "  The  Soul  of  the  Far  East,"  in  which  he  endeavors 
to  establish  the  position  that  the  entire  civilization  of  the 
Orient,  in  its  institutions,  such  as  the  family  and  the 
state,  in  the  structure  of  its  language,  in  its  conceptions 
of  nature,  in  its  art,  in  its  religion,  and  finally  in  its  in- 
herent mental  nature,  is  essentially  impersonal.  One  of 
the  prominent  and  long  resident  missionaries  in  Japan 
once  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  influence  of 
pantheism  in  the  Orient,  in  which  he  contended,  among 
other  things,  that  the  lack  of  personal  pronouns  and  other 
phenomena  of  Japanese  life  and  religion  arc  due  to  the 
presence  and  power  in  this  land  of  pantheistic  philosophy 
preventing  the  development  of  personality. 

The  more  I  have  examined  these  writings  and  their 
fundamental  assumptions,  the  more  manifest  have  am- 
biguities and  contradictions  in  the  use  of  terms  become. 
I  have  become  also  increasingly  impressed  with  the  fail- 
ure of  advocates  of  Ja]:)anese  "  impersonality  "  to  appre- 
ciate the  real  nature  of  the  phenomena  they  seek  to  ex- 
plain. They  have  not  comprehended  the  nature  or  the 
course  of  social  evolution,  nor  have  they  discovered  the 
mutual  relation  existing  between  the  social  order  and 
personality.  The  arguments  advanced  for  the  "  imper- 
sonal "  view  are  more  or  less  plausible,  and  this  method 

344 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    IMPERSONAL?    345 

of  interpreting  the  Orient  appeals  for  authority  to  re- 
spectable philosophical  writers.  No  less  a  philosopher 
than  Hegel  is  committed  to  this  interpretation.  The  im- 
portance of  this  subject,  not  only  for  a  correct  understand- 
ing of  Japan,  but  also  of  the  relation  existing  between 
individual,  social,  and  reUgious  evolution,  requires  us  to 
give  it  careful  attention.  We  shall  make  our  way  most 
easily  into  this  difticult  discussion  by  considering  some 
prevalent  misconceptions  and  defective  arguments.  I 
may  here  express  my  indebtedness  to  the  author  of  "  The 
Soul  of  the  Far  East  "  for  the  stimulus  received  from  his 
brilliant  volume,  differ  though  I  do  from  his  main  thesis. 
We  begin  this  study  with  a  few  quotations  from  Mr. 
Lowell's  now  classic  work. 

"  Capability  to  evolve  anything  is  not  one  of  the  marked 
characteristics  of  the  Far  East.  Indeed,  the  tendency  to 
spontaneous  variation.  Nature's  mode  of  making  experi- 
ments, would  seem  there  to  have  been  an  enterprising 
faculty  that  was  early  exhausted.  Sleepy,  no  doubt,  from 
having  got  up  betimes  with  the  dawn,  these  inhabitants 
of  the  land  of  the  morning  began  to  look  upon  their  day 
as  already  far  spent  before  they  had  reached  its  noon. 
They  grew  old  young,  and  have  remained  much  the  same 
age  ever  since.  What  they  were  centuries  ago,  that  at 
bottom  they  are  to-day.  Take  away  the  European  in- 
fluences of  the  past  twenty  years,  and  each  man  might 
almost  be  his  own  great-grandfather.  In  race  character, 
he  is  yet  essentially  the  same.  The  traits  that  distin- 
guished these  peoples  in  the  past  have  been  gradually 
extinguishing  them  ever  since.  Of  these  traits,  stagnating 
influences  upon  their  career,  perhaps  the  most  important 
is  the  great  quality  of  "  impersonality."*  "  The  peoples 
inhabiting  it  [the  northern  hemisphere]  grow  steadily 
more  personal  as  we  go  West.  So  unmistakable  is_  this 
gradation  that  we  are  almost  tempted  to  ascribe  it  to 
cosmical  rather  than  to  human  causes.  .  .  The  sense 
of  self  grows  more  intense  as  we  follow  the  wake  of 
the  setting  sun,  and  fades  steadily  as  we  advance  into 
the  dawn.  America,  Europe,  the  Levant,  India,  Japan, 
*  P.  14. 


346        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

each  is  less  personal  than  the  one  before.  We  stand  at 
the  nearer  end  of  the  scale,  the  Far  Orientals  at  the  other. 
If  with  us  the  '  I '  seems  to  be  the  very  essence  of  the 
soul,  then  the  soul  of  the  Far  East  may  be  said  to  be 
'  Impersonality.'  "  * 

Following  the  argument  through  the  volume  we 
see  that  individual  physical  force  and  aggressiveness, 
deficiency  of  politeness,  and  selfishness  are,  accord- 
ing to  this  line  of  thought,  essential  elements  of  per- 
sonality. The  opposite  set  of  qualities  constitutes  the 
essence  of  impersonality.  "  The  average  Far  Oriental,  in- 
deed, talks  as  much  to  no  purpose  as  his  Western  cousin, 
only  in  his  chit-chat  politeness  takes  the  place  of  per- 
sonalities. With  him,  self  is  suppressed,  and  an  ever- 
present  regard  for  others  is  substituted  in  its  stead.  A 
lack  of  personality  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  occasion  of 
this  courtesy;  it  is  also  its  cause.  .  .  Considered  a 
priori,  the  connection  between  the  two  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Impersonality,  by  lessening  the  interest  in  one's  self,  in- 
duces one  to  take  an  interest  in  others.  Introspection 
tends  to  make  a  man  a  solitary  animal,  the  absence  of  it 
a  social  one.  The  more  impersonal  the  people,  the  more 
will  the  community  supplant  the  individual  in  the  poj)- 
ular  estimation.  .  .  Then,  as  the  social  desires  develop, 
politeness,  being  the  means  of  their  enjoyment,  develops 
also."t 

Let  us  take  a  look  at  some  definitions : 

"  Individuality,  personality,  and  the  sense  of  self,  are 
only  three  asjjccts  of  the  same  thing.  They  are  so  many 
various  views  of  the  soul,  according  as  we  regard  it  from 
an  intrinsic,  an  altruistic,  or  an  egoistic  standpoint.  .  . 
By  individuality  we  mean  that  bundle  of  ideas,  thoughts, 
and  day-dreams  which  constitute  our  separate  identity,  and 
by  virtue  of  which  we  feel  each  one  of  us  at  home  within 
himself.  .  .  Consciousness  is  the  necessary  attribute 
of  mental  action.  Not  only  is  it  the  sole  way  we  have 
of  knowing  mind ;  without  it  there  would  be  no  mind  to 
know.  Not  to  be  conscious  of  one's  self  is,  mentally 
*  P.  15.  t  Pp.  88,  89. 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    IMPERSONAL?    347 

speaking,  not  to  be.  This  complex  entity,  this  little  cosmos 
of  a  world,  the  '  I,'  has  for  its  very  law  of  existence, 
self-consciousness,  while  personality  is  the  effect  it  pro- 
duces upon  the  consciousness  of  others."  * 

The  more  we  study  the  above  definitions,  the  more  baf- 
fling they  become.  Try  as  I  may,  I  have  not  been  able 
to  fit  them,  not  only  to  the  facts  of  my  own  experience, 
which  may  not  be  strange,  but  I  cannot  reconcile  them 
even  to  each  other.  There  seem  to  me  inherent  ambi- 
guities and  self-contradictions  lurking  beneath  their  scien- 
tific splendor.  Individuality  is  stated  to  be  "  that  bundle 
of  ideas,  thoughts,  and  day-dreams  which  constitute  our 
separate  identity."  This  seems  plain  and  straightforward, 
but  is  it  really  so?  Consciousness  is  stated  to  be  not  only 
"the  necessary  attribute  of  mental  action"  (to  which 
exception  might  be  taken  on  the  ground  of  abundant 
proof  of  unconscious  mental  action),  but  it  is  also  con- 
sidered to  be  the  very  cause  of  mind  itself.  Not  only 
by  consciousness  do  we  know  mind,  but  the  consciousness 
itself  constitutes  the  mind ;  "  without  it  there  would  be 
no  mind  to  know."  "  Not  to  be  conscious  of  one's  self  is 
not  to  be."  Do  we  then  cease  to  be,  when  we  sleep?  or 
when  absorbed  in  thought  or  action  ?  And  do  we  become 
new-created  when  we  awake  ?  What  is  the  bond  of  con- 
nection that  binds  into  one  the  successive  consciousnesses 
of  the  successive  days  ?  Does  not  that  "  bundle  of  ideas  " 
become  broken  into  as  many  wholly  independent  frag- 
ments as  there  are  intervals  between  our  sleepings?  Or 
rather  is  not  each  fragment  a  whole  in  itself,  and  is  not 
the  idea  of  self -continuity  from  day  to  day  and  from 
week  to  week  a  self-delusion?  How  can  it  be  otherwise 
if  consciousness  constitutes  existence?  For  after  the 
consciousness  has  ceased  and  "  the  bundle  of  ideas,"  which 
constitutes  the  individuality  of  that  day,  has  therefore 
gone  absolutely  out  of  existence,  it  is  impossible  that  the 
old  bundle  shall  be  resurrected  by  a  new  consciousness. 
Only  a  new  bundle  can  be  the  product  of  a  new  con- 
sciousness. Evidently  there  is  trouble  somewhere.  But 
let  us  pass  on. 

*  Pp.  203,  204. 


348       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

"  The  '  I  '  has  for  its  very  law  of  existence  self-con- 
sciousness." Is  not  "  self-consciousness  "  here  identified 
with  "consciousness"  in  the  preceding  sentence?  The 
very  existence  of  the  mind,  the  "I,"  is  ascribed  to  each 
in  turn.  Is  there,  then,  no  difference  between  conscious- 
ness and  self-consciousness?  Finally,  personality  is 
stated  to  be  "  the  effect  it  [the  "  I  "]  produces  on  the  self- 
consciousness  of  others."  I  confess  I  gain  no  clear  idea 
from  this  statement.  But  whatever  else  it  may  mean, 
this  is  clear,  that  personality  is  not  a  quality  or  character- 
istic of  the  "  I,"  but  only  some  effect  which  the  "  I  "  pro- 
duces on  the  consciousness  of  another.  Is  it  a  quality, 
then,  of  the  other  person  ?  And  does  impersonality  mean 
the  lack  of  such  an  effect?  But  does  not  this  introduce 
us  to  new  confusion?  When  a  human  being  is  wholly 
absorbed  in  an  altruistic  act,  for  instance,  wholly  forgetful 
of  self,  he  is,  according  to  a  preceding  paragraph,  quite 
impersonal ;  yet,  according  to  the  definition  before  us,  he 
cannot  be  impersonal,  for  he  is  producing  most  lively 
effects  on  the  consciousness  of  the  poor  human  being  he 
is  befriending ;  in  his  altruistic  deed  he  is  strongly  per- 
sonal, yet  not  he,  for  personality  does  not  belong  to  the 
person  acting,  but  somehow  to  the  person  aft"ected.  How 
strange  that  the  personality  of  a  person  is  not  his  own 
characteristic  but  another's ! 

But  still  more  confusing  is  the  definition  when  we  recall 
that  if  the  benevolent  man  is  wholly  unconscious  of  self, 
and  is  thinking  only  of  the  one  whom  he  is  helping,  then 
he  himself  is  no  longer  existing.  But  in  that  case  how 
can  he  help  the  poor  man  or  even  continue  to  think  of 
him  ?  Perfect  altruism  is  self-annihilation !  Knowledge 
of  itself  by  the  mind  is  that  which  constitutes  it !  But 
enough.  It  has  become  clear  that  these  terms  have  not 
been  used  consistently,  nor  are  the  definitions  such  as 
to  command  the  assent  of  any  careful  psychologist  or  phi- 
losopher. What  the  writer  means  to  say  is,  I  judge,  that 
the  measure  of  a  man's  personality  is  the  amount  of 
impression  he  makes  on  his  fellows.  For  the  whole  drift 
of  his  argument  is  that  both  the  physical  and  mental  ag- 
gressiveness of  the  Occidental  is  far  greater  than  that 
of  the  Oriental;  this  characteristic,  he  asserts,  is  due  to 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    IMPERSONAL?    349 

the  deficient  development  of  personality  in  the  Orient,  and 
this  deficient  development  he  calls  "  impersonality."  If 
those  writers  who  describe  the  Orient  as  "  impersonal  " 
fail  in  their  definition  of  the  term  "  personal,"  their  failure 
to  define  "  impersonal  "  is  even  more  striking.  They  use 
the  term  as  if  it  were  so  well  known  as  to  need  no  defi- 
nition ;  yet  their  usage  ascribes  to  it  contrary  conceptions. 
As  a  rule  they  conceive  of  "  impersonality  "  as  a  deficiency 
of  development ;  yet,  when  they  attempt  to  describe  its 
nature,  they  speak  of  it  as  self-suppression.  A  clear  state- 
ment of  this  latter  point  may  be  found  in  a  passage  already 
quoted :  "  Politeness  takes  the  place  of  personalities.  With 
him  [the  Oriental],  self  is  suppressed,  and  an  ever-pres- 
ent regard  for  others  is  substituted."  "  Impersonality,  by 
lessening  the  interest  in  one's  self,  induces  one  to  take 
interest  in  others."  In  this  statement  it  will  be  noted 
the  "self  is  suppressed.''  Does  "impersonality"  then 
follow  personality,  as  a  matter  of  historical  development  ? 
It  would  so  appear  from  this  and  kindred  passages.  But 
if  this  is  true,  then  Japan  is  iiwrc  instead  of  less  developed 
than  the  Occident.  Yet  this  is  exactly  the  reverse  of  that 
for  which  this  school  of  thought  contends. 

Let  us  now  examine  some  concrete  illustrations  ad- 
duced by  those  who  advocate  Japanese  impersonality. 
They  may  be  arranged  in  two  classes :  those  that  are  due 
wholly  to  invention,  and  those  that  are  doubtless  facts, 
but  that  may  be  better  accounted  for  by  some  other  theory 
than  that  of  "  impersonality." 

Mr.  Lowell  makes  amusing  material  out  of  the  two 
children's  festivals,  known  by  the  Japanese  as  "  Sekku," 
occurring  on  March  3  and  June  5  (old  calendar). 
Because  the  first  of  these  is  exclusively  for  the  girls  and 
the  second  is  exclusively  for  the  boys,  Mr.  Lowell  con- 
cludes that  they  are  general  birthdays,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
which  he  seems  to  know  that  the  ages  are  not  reckoned 
from  these  days.  He  calls  them  "  the  great  impersonal 
birthdays  " ;  for,  according  to  his  supposition,  all  the  girls 
celebrate  their  birthdays  on  the  third  day  of  the  third 
moon  and  all  the  boys  celebrate  theirs  on  the  fifth  day 
of  the  fifth  moon,  regardless  of  the  actual  days  on  which 
they  may  have  been  born.     With  regard  to  this  under- 


350        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

standing  of  the  significance  of  the  festival,  I  have  asked 
a  large  number  of  Japanese,  not  one  of  whom  had  ever 
heard  of  such  an  idea.  Each  one  has  insisted  that  indi- 
vidual birthdays  are  celebrated  regardless  of  these  general 
festivals ;  the  ages  of  children  are  never  computed  from 
these  festivals ;  they  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
the  ages  of  the  children.* 

The  rei)ort  of  the  discussions  of  the  Japanese  Society 
of  Comparative  Religion  contains  quite  a  minute  state- 
ment of  all  the  facts  known  as  to  these  festivals,  much 
too  long  in  this  connection,  but  among  them  there  is  not 
the  slightest  reference  to  the  birthday  feature  attributed 
to  them  by  Mr.  Lowell. f 

Mr.  Lowell  likewise  invents  another  fact  in  support  of 
his  theory  by  his  interpretation  of  the  Japanese  method 
of  computing  ages.  Speaking  of  the  advent  of  an  infant 
into  the  home  he  says,  that  "  from  the  moment  he  makes 
his  appearance  he  is  spoken  of  as  a  year  old,  and  this  same 
age  he  continues  to  be  considered  in  most  simple  cases 
of  calculation,  till  the  beginning  of  the  next  calendar 
year.  When  that  epoch  of  general  rejoicing  arrives,  he 
is  credited  with  another  year  himself.  So  is  everybody 
else.  New  Year's  day  is  a  common  birthday  for  the  com- 
munit}',  a  sort  of  impersonal  anniversary  for  his  whole 
world."  Now  this  is  a  very  entertaining  conceit,  but  it 
will  hardly  pass  muster  as  a  serious  argument  with  one 
who  has  any  real  understanding  of  Japanese  ideas  on  the 
subject.  The  simple  fact  is  that  the  Japanese  docs  not 
ordinarily  tell  you  how^  old  the  child  is,  but  only  in  how 
many  year  periods  he  has  lived.  Though  born  December 
31,  on  January  i  he  has  undoubtedly  lived  in  two  dif- 
ferent year  periods.  This  method  of  counting,  however, 
is  not  confined  to  the  counting  of  ages,  but  it  characterizes 
all  their  counting.  If  you  ask  a  man  how  many  days  be- 
fore a  certain  festival  near  at  hand  he  will  say  ten  where 
we  would  say  but  nine.  In  other  words,  in  counting 
periods  the  Japanese  count  all,  including  both  the  first 
and  the  last,  whereas  we  omit  the  first.  This  as  a  cus- 
tom is  an  interesting  psychological  problem,  but   it   has 

*  Cf.  chapter  viii. 

f  Sec  the  Rilcugo  ZassJiiiox  March,  1898. 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    IMPERSONAL?    351 

not  the  remotest  connection  with  "  personality  "  or  "  im- 
personality." Furthermore,  the  Japanese  have  another 
method  of  signifying  the  age  of  a  child  which  corresponds 
exactly  to  ours.  You  have  but  to  ask  what  is  the  "  full  " 
age  of  a  child  to  receive  a  statement  which  satisfies  our 
ideas  of  the  problem.  The  idea  of  calling  New  Year's 
day  a  great  "  impersonal  "  birthday  because  forsooth  all 
the  members  of  the  community  and  the  nation  then  enter 
on  a  new  year  period,  and  of  using  that  as  an  argument 
for  the  "  impersonality  "  of  the  whole  race,  is  as  inter- 
esting as  it  is  inconclusive. 

Much  is  made  of  the  fact  that  Japanese  art  has  paid 
its  chief  attention  to  nature  and  to  animals,  and  but  little 
to  man.  This  proves,  it  is  argued,  that  the  Japanese  artist 
and  people  are  "  impersonal  " — that  they  are  not  self- 
conscious,  for  their  gaze  is  directed  outward,  toward  "  im- 
personal "  nature ;  had  they  been  an  aggressive  personal 
people,  a  people  conscious  of  self,  their  art  would  have 
depicted  man.  The  cogency  of  this  logic  seems  ques- 
tionable to  me.  Art  is  necessarily  objective,  whether  it 
depicts  nature  or  man ;  the  gaze  is  always  and  necessarily 
outward,  even  when  it  is  depicting  the  human  form.  In 
our  consideration  of  the  sesthetic  elements  of  Japanese 
character*  we  gave  reasons  for  the  Japanese  love  of 
natural  beauty  and  for  their  relatively  slight  attention  to 
the  human  form.  If  the  reasons  there  given  were  correct, 
the  fact  that  Japanese  art  is  concerned  chiefly  with  nature 
has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  "  impersonality  " 
of  the  people.  If  "  impersonality  "  is  essentially  altru- 
istic, if  it  consists  of  self-suppression  and  interest  in 
others,  then  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  art  that  depicts  the 
form  even  of  human  beings  can  escape  the  charge  of  being 
"  impersonal  "  except  when  the  artist  is  depicting  him- 
self. If,  again,  supreme  interest  in  "objective  "  im- 
personal "  nature  proves  the  lack  of  "  personality,"  should 
we  not  argue  that  the  West  is  supremely  "  impersonal  " 
because  of  its  extraordinary  interest  in  nature  and  in  the 
natural  and  physical  sciences  ?  Are  naturalists  and  scien- 
tists "  impersonal,"  and  are  philosophers  and  psycholo- 
gists "personal"  in  nature?  If  it  be  argued  that  art 
*  Cf.  chapter  xv. 


352        EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

which  depicts  the  human  emotions  is  properly  speaking 
subjective,  and  therefore  a  proof  of  developed  person- 
ality, will  it  be  maintained  that  Japan  is  devoid  of  such 
art  ?  How  about  the  pictures  and  the  statues  of  warriors  ? 
How  about  the  passionate  features  of  the  Ni-o,  the  placid 
faces  of  the  Buddhas  and  other  religious  imagery?  Are 
there  not  here  the  most  powerful  representations  possible 
of  human  emotions,  both  active  and  passive?  But  even 
so,  is  not  the  gaze  of  the  artist  still  outward  on  others,  /.  e., 
is  he  not  altruistic ;  and,  therefore,  "  impersonal,"  accord- 
ing to  this  method  of  thought  and  use  of  terms?  Are 
European  artists  who  revel  in  landscape  and  animal  scenes 
deficient  in  "  personal  "  development,  and  are  those  who 
devote  their  lives  to  painting  nude  women  particularly 
developed  in  "  personality  "  ?  Truly,  a  defective  termi- 
nology and  a  distorted  conception  of  what  "  personality  ' 
is,  land  one  in  most  contradictory  positions. 

Those  who  urge  the  "  impersonality  "  of  the  Orient 
make  much  of  the  Japanese  idea  of  the  "  family,"  with  the 
attendant  customs.  The  fact  that  marriage  is  arranged 
for  by  the  parents,  and  that  the  two  individuals  most  con- 
cerned have  practically  no  voice  in  the  matter,  proves 
conclusively,  they  argue,  that  the  latter  have  little  "  per- 
sonality." Here  again  all  turns  on  the  definition  of  this 
important  word.  If  by  "  personality  "  is  meant  conscious- 
ness of  one's  self  as  an  independent  individual,  then  I  do 
not  see  what  relation  the  two  subjects  have.  If,  however, 
it  means  the  willingness  of  the  subjects  of  marriage  to 
forego  their  own  desires  and  choices,  because  indeed  they 
do  not  have  any  of  their  own,  then  the  facts  will  not  bear 
out  the  argument.  These  writers  skillfully  choose  certain 
facts  out  of  the  family  customs  whereby  to  illustrate  and 
enforce  this  theory,  but  they  entirely  omit  others  having  a 
significant  bearing  upon  it.  Take,^  for  instance,  the  fact 
that  one-third  of  the  marriages  end  in  divorce  *  What 
does  this  show?  It  shows  that  one-third  of  the  individ- 
uals in  each  marriage  are  so  dissatisfied  with  the  arrange- 
ments made  by  the  parents  that  they  reject  them  and  assert 
their  own  choice  and  decision.  According  to  the  argu- 
ment for  "  impersonality  "  in  marriage,  these  recalcitrant, 
*  Cy.  chai)lcr  .\xiii.  p.  329. 


ARE   THE   JAPANESE    IMPERSONAL?    353 

unsubmissive  individuals  have  a  great  amount  of  "  per- 
sonality," that  is,  consciousness  of  self;  and  this  conscious- 
ness of  self  produces  a  great  effect  on  the  other  party  to 
the  marriage;  and  the  effect  on  the  other  party  (in  the 
vast  majority  of  the  cases  women),  that  is  to  say,  the 
effect  of  the  divorce  on  the  consciousness  of  the  women, 
constitutes  the  personality  of  the  men !  The  marriage 
customs  cited,  therefore,  do  not  prove  the  point,  for  no 
account  is  taken  of  the  multitudinous  cases  in  which  one 
party  or  the  other  utterly  refuses  to  carry  out  the  ar- 
rangements of  the  parents.  Many  a  girl  declines  from 
the  beginning  the  proposals  of  the  parents.  These  cases 
are  by  no  means  few.  Only  a  few  days  before  writing 
the  present  lines  a  waiting  girl  in  a  hotel  requested  me  to 
find  her  a  place  of  service  in  some  foreign  family.  On 
inquiry  she  told  me  how  her  parents  wished  her  to  marry 
into  a  certain  family ;  but  that  she  could  not  endure  the 
thought  and  had  run  away  from  home.  One  of  the  facts 
wdiich  strike  a  missionary,  as  he  becomes  acquainted  with 
the  people,  is  the  frequency  of  the  cases  of  running  away 
from  home.  Girls  run  away,  probably  not  as  frequently 
as  boys,  yet  very  often.  Are  we  to  believe  that  these 
are  individuals  who  have  an  excessive  amount  of  "  per- 
sonality"? If  so,  then  the  development  of  "person- 
ality "  in  Japan  is  far  more  than  the  advocates  of  its 
"  impersonality  "  recognize  or  would  allow  us  to  believe. 
Mr.  Lowell  devotes  three  pages  to  a  beautiful  and 
truthful  description  of  the  experience  known  in  the  West 
as  "  falling  in  love."  Turning  his  attention  to  the  Orient, 
because  of  the  fact  that  marriages  are  arranged  for  by  the 
families  concerned,  he  argues  that:  "  No" such  blissful 
infatuation  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  Far  Oriental.  He  never 
is  the  dupe  of  his  own  desire,  the  willing  victim  of  his 
self-delusion.  He  is  never  tempted  to  reveal  himself,  and 
by  thus  revealing,  realize.  .  .  For  she  is  not  his  love; 
she  is  only  his  wife ;  and  what  is  left  of  a  romance  when 
the  romance  is  left  out  ?  "  Although  there  is  an  element 
of  truth  in  this,  yet  it  is  useless  as  a  support  for  the 
theory  of  Japanese  "  impersonality."  For  it  is  not  a 
fact  that  the  Japanese  do  not  fall  in  love ;  it  is  a  well- 
known  experience  to  them.     It  is  inconceivable  how  any- 


354       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

one  at  all  acquainted  with  either  Japanese  hfe  or  Hterature 
could  make  such  an  assertion.  The  passionate  love  of  a 
man  and  a  woman  for  each  other,  so  strong  that  in  multi- 
tudes of  cases  the  two  prefer  a  common  death  to  a  life 
apart,  is  a  not  uncommon  event  in  Japan.  Frequently 
we  read  in  the  daily  papers  of  a  case  of  mutual  suicide 
for  love.  This  is  sufficiently  common  to  have  received  a 
specific  name  "  joshi."* 

So  far  as  the  argument  for  "  impersonality  "  is  con- 
cerned this  illustration  from  the  asserted  lack  of  love  is 
useless,  for  it  is  one  of  those  manufactured  for  the  occa- 
sion by  imaginative  and  resourceful  advocates  of  "  im- 
personality." 

But  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  "  falling  in  love  "  plays 
the  same  important  part  in  the  life  and  development  of 
the  youth  in  Japan  that  it  does  in  the  West.  It  is  usually 
utterly  ignored,  so  far  as  parental  planning  for  marriage 
is  concerned.  Love  is  not  recognized  as  a  proper  basis 
for  the  contraction  of  marriage,  and  is  accordingly 
frowned  upon.  It  is  deemed  a  sign  of  mental  and  moral 
weakness  for  a  man  to  fall  in  love.  Under  these  condi- 
tions it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  "  falling  in  love  "  is  not 
so  common  an  experience  as  in  the  West.  Furthermore, 
this  profound  experience  is  not  utilized  as  it  is  in  the 
West  as  a  refining  and  elevating  influence  in  the  life  of 
a  young  man  or  woman.  In  a  land  where  "  falling  in 
love  "  is  regarded  as  an  immoral  thing,  a  breaking  out 
of  uncontrollable  animal  passion,  it  is  not  strange  that 
it  should  not  be  glorified  by  moralists  or  sanctified  by 
religion.  There  are  few  experiences  in  the  West  so  en- 
nobling as  the  love  that  a  young  man  and  a  young  woman 
bear  to  each  other  during  the  days  of  their  engagement 
and  lasting  onward  throughout  the  years  of  their  length- 
ening married  life.  The  West  has  found  the  secret  of 
making  use  of  this  period  in  the  lives  of  the  young  to 
elevate  and  purify  them  of  which  the  East  knows  little. 

But  there  are  still  other  and  sadder  consequences  fol- 

*  Buddhism  is  larsjely  responsible  for  the  wide  practice  of 
"joshi,"  tlirouijh  its  doctrine  that  lovers  whom  fate  does  not 
permit  to  be  married  in  this  world  may  be  united  in  the  ne.xt 
because  of  the  strength  of  their  love. 


ARE    THE   JAPANESE    IMPERSONAL?    355 

lowing  from  the  attitude  of  the  Japanese  to  the  question 
of  "  falHng  in  love."  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the 
vast  number  of  divorces  is  due  to  the  defective  method  of 
betrothal,  a  method  which  disregards  the  free  choice  of 
the  parties  most  concerned.  The  system  of  divorce  is, 
we  may  say,  the  device  of  society  for  remedying  the  in- 
herent defects  of  the  betrothal  system.  It  treats  both 
the  man  and  the  woman  as  though  they  w^ere  not  persons 
but  unfeeling  machines.  Personality,  for  a  while  submis- 
sive, soon  asserts  its  liberty,  in  case  the  married  parties 
prove  uncongenial,  and  demands  the  right  of  divorce. 
Divorce  is  thus  the  device  of  thwarted  personality.  But 
in  addition  to  this  evil,  there  is  that  of  concubinage  or 
virtual  polygamy,  which  is  often  the  result  of  "  falling 
in  love."  And  then,  there  is  the  resort  of  hopelessly 
thwarted  personality  known  in  the  West  as  well  as  in  the 
East,  murder  and  suicide,  and  oftentimes  even  double 
suicide,  referred  to  above.  The  marriage  customs  of  the 
Orient  are  such  that  hopeless  love,  though  mutual,  is  far 
more  frequent  than  in  the  \\^est,  and  the  death  of  lovers 
in  each  other's  arms,  after  having  together  taken  the  fatal 
draught,  is  not  rare.  The  number  of  suicides  due  to  hope- 
less love  in  1894  was  407,  and  the  number  of  murders 
for  the  same  cause  was  94.  Here  is  a  total  of  over  five 
hundred  deaths  in  a  single  year,  very  largely  due  to  the 
defective  marriage  system.  Do  not  these  phenomena  re- 
fute assertions  to  the  effect  that  the  Japanese  are  so  im- 
personal as  not  to  know  what  it  is  to  "  fall  in  love  "  ?  If 
the  question  of  the  personality  of  the  Japanese  is  to  be 
settled  by  the  phenomena  of  family  life  and  the  strength 
of  the  sexual  emotion,  would  we  not  have  to  pronounce 
them  possessed  of  strongly  developed  personality  ? 


XXXI 

THE  JAPANESE  NOT  IMPERSONAL 

WE  must  now  face  the  far  more  difficult  task  of 
presenting  a  positive  statement  in  regard  to  the 
problem  of  personality  in  the  Orient.  We  need 
to  discover  just  what  is  or  should  be  meant  by  the  terms 
"  personality  "  and  "  impersonality."  We  must  also  an- 
alyze this  Oriental  civilization  and  discover  its  elementary 
factors,  in  order  that  we  may  see  what  it  is  that  has  given 
the  impression  to  so  many  students  that  the  Orient  is 
"  impersonal."  In  doing  this,  although  our  aim  is  con- 
structive, we  shall  attain  our  end  with  greater  ease  if  we 
rise  to  positive  results  through  further  criticism  of  defect- 
ive views.     We  naturally  begin  with  definitions. 

"  Individuality  "  is  defined  by  the  Standard  Dictionary 
as  "  the  state  or  quality  of  being  individual ;  separate  or 
distinct  existence."  "  Individual  "  is  defined  as  "  Any- 
thing that  cannot  be  divided  or  separated  into  parts  with- 
out losing  identity.  .  .  A  single  person,  animal,  or 
thing."  "  Personality  "  is  defined  as  "  That  which  con- 
stitutes a  person ;  conscious,  separate  existence  as  an  in- 
telligent and  voluntary  being."  "  Person  "  is  defined  as 
"  Any  being  having  life,  intelligence,  will,  and  separate 
individual  existence."  On  these  various  definitions  the 
following  observations  seem  pertinent. 

"  Individuality  "  has  reference  only  to  the  distinctions 
existing  between  different  objects,  persons,  or  things.  The 
term  draws  attention  to  the  fact  of  distinctness  and  dif- 
ference and  not  to  the  (]ualitics  which  make  the  difference, 
and  least  of  all  to  the  consciousness  of  identity  by  virtue 
of  which  "  we  feel  each  one  of  us  at  home  within  him- 
self." 

"  Personality "  properly  has  reference  onl\'  to  that 
which  constitutes  a  person.    As  contrastetl  with  an  animal 


THE   JAPANESE    NOT    IMPERSONAL     357 

a  person  has  not  only  life,  but  also  a  highly  developed  and 
self-conscious  intelligence,  feeling,  and  will ;  these  involve 
moral  relations  toward  other  persons  and  religious  rela- 
tions toward  God. 

Consciousness  is  not  attendant  on  every  act  of  the  per- 
son, much  less  is  self-consciousness,  although  both  are 
always  potential  and  more  or  less  implicit.  A  person  is 
often  so  absorbed  in  thought  or  act  as  to  be  wholly  un- 
conscious of  his  thinking  or  acting;  the  consciousness  is, 
so  to  speak,  submerged  for  the  time  being.  Self-con- 
sciousness implies  considerable  progress  in  reflection  on 
one's  own  states  of  mind,  and  in  the  attainment  of  the 
consciousness  of  one's  own  individuality.  It  is  the  result 
of  introspection.  Self-consciousness,  however,  does  not 
constitute  one's  identity ;  it  merely  recognizes  it. 

The  foundation  for  a  correct  conception  of  the  term 
"  personality  "  rests  on  the  conception  of  the  term  "  soul  " 
or  "  spirit."  In  my  judgment,  each  human  being  is  to 
be  conceived  as  being  a  separate  "  soul,"  endowed  by  its 
very  nature  with  definite  capacities  or  qualities  or  attri- 
butes which  we  describe  as  mental,  emotional,  and  voli- 
tional, having  powers  of  consciousness  more  or  less  devel- 
oped according  to  the  social  evolution  of  the  race,  the  age 
of  the  individual,  his  individual  environment,  and  depend- 
ing also  on  the  amount  of  education  he  may  have  received. 
The  possession  of  a  soul  endowed  with  these  qualities  con- 
stitutes a  person ;  their  possession  in  marked  measure  con- 
stitutes developed  personality,  and  in  defective  measure, 
undeveloped  personality. 

The  unique  character  of  a  "  person  "  is  that  he  combines 
perfect  separateness  with  the  possibility  and  more  or  less 
of  the  actuality  of  perfect  universality.  A  "  person  "  is 
in  a  true  sense  a  universal,  an  infinite  being.  He  is  thus 
through  the  constitution  of  his  psychic  nature  a  thinking, 
feeling,  and  willing  being.  Through  his  intellect  and  in 
proportion  to  his  knowledge  he  becomes  united  with  the 
whole  objective  universe ;  through  his  feelings  he  may  be- 
come united  in  sympathy  and  love  with  all  sentient  crea- 
tion, and  even  with  God  himself,  the  center  and  source  of 
all  being ;  through  his  active  will  he  is  increasingly  cre- 
ator of  his  environment.     Man  is  thus  in  a  true  sense  ere- 


358       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

ating  the  conditions  which  make  him  to  be  what  he  is. 
Thus  in  no  figurative  sense,  but  hterally  and  actually, 
man  is  in  the  process  of  creating  himself.  He  is  realiz- 
ing the  latent  and  hitherto  unsuspected  potentialities  of 
his  nature.  He  is  creating  a  world  in  which  to  express 
himself;  and  this  he  does  by  expressing  himself.  In 
proportion  as  man  advances,  making  explicit  what  is  im- 
plicit in  his  inner  nature,  is  he  said  to  grow  in  personality. 
A  man  thus  both  possesses  personality  and  grows  in  per- 
sonality. He  could  not  grow  in  it  did  he  not  already  actually 
possess  it.  In  such  growth  both  elements  of  his  being, 
the  individual  and  the  universal,  develop  simultaneously. 
A  person  of  inferior  personal  development  is  at  once  less 
individual  and  less  universal.  This  is  a  matter,  however, 
not  of  endowment  but  of  development.  We  thus  distin- 
guish between  the  original  personal  endowment,  which  we 
may  call  intrinsic  or  inherent  personality,  and  the  various 
forms  in  which  this  personality  has  manifested  and  ex- 
pressed itself,  which  we  may  call  extrinsic  or  acquired 
personality.  Inherent  personality  is  that  which  differen- 
tiates man  from  animal.  It  constitutes  the  original  in- 
volution which  explains  and  even  necessitates  man's  en- 
tire evolution.  There  may  be,  nay,  must  be,  varying  de- 
grees of  expression  of  the  inherent  personality,  just  as 
there  may  be  and  must  be  varying  degrees  of  conscious- 
ness of  personality.  These  depend  on  the  degree  of  evo- 
lution attained  by  the  race  and  by  the  individuals  of  the 
race. 

It  is  no  part  of  our  plan  to  justify  this  conception  of 
the  nature  of  personality,  or  to  defend  these  brief  sum- 
mary statements  as  to  its  inherent  nature.  It  is  enough 
if  we  have  gained  a  clear  idea  of  this  conception  on  which 
the  present  chapter,  and  indeed  this  entire  w^ork,  rests. 
In  discussing  the  question  as  to  personality  in  the  Orient, 
it  is  important  for  us  ever  to  bear  in  mind  the  distinc- 
tions between  the  inherent  endowment  that  constitutes 
personal  beings,  the  explicit  and  external  expression  of 
that  endowment,  and  the  possession  of  the  consciousness 
of  that  endowment.  For  these  are  three  ihings  quite  tlis- 
tinct,  though  intimately  related. 

The  term  "  impersonality  "  demantls  special  attention, 


THE   JAPANESE    NOT    IMPERSONAL    359 

being-  the  most  misused  and  abused  term  of  all.  The  first 
and  natural  signification  of  the  word  is  the  mere  negation 
of  personality ;  as  a  stone,  for  instance,  is  strictly  "  imper- 
sonal." This  is  the  meaning  given  by  the  dictionaries. 
But  in  this  sense,  of  course,  it  is  inapplicable  to  human 
beings.  What,  then,  is  the  meaning  when  applied  to 
them?  When  Mr.  Lowell  says,  "If  with  us  [of  the 
West]  the  '  I '  seems  to  be  of  the  very  essence  of  the  soul, 
then  the  soul  of  the  Far  East  may  be  said  to  be  '  imper- 
sonal,' "  what  does  he  mean  ?  He  certainly  does  not  mean 
that  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  and  Hindus  have  no  emo- 
tional or  volitional  characteristics,  that  they  are  strictly 
"  impersonal  " ;  nor  does  he  mean  that  the  Oriental  has 
less  development  of  powers  of  thinking,  willing,  feeling, 
or  of  introspective  meditation.  The  whole  argument 
shows  that  he  means  that  their  sense  of  the  individuality 
or  separateness  of  the  Ego  is  so  slight  that  it  is  practically 
ignored;  and  this  not  by  their  civilisation  alone,  but  by 
each  individual  himself.  The  supreme  consciousness  of 
the  individual  is  not  of  himself,  but  of  his  family  or  race ; 
or  if  he  is  an  intensely  religious  man,  his  consciousness 
is  concerned  with  his  essential  identity  with  the  Absolute 
and  Ultimate  Being,  rather  than  with  his  own  separate 
self.  In  other  words,  the  term  "  impersonal  "  is  made  to 
do  duty  for  the  non-existent  negative  of  "  individual." 
"  Impersonal  "  is  thus  equivalent  to  "  universal  "  and  per- 
sonal to  "  individual."  To  change  the  phraseology,  the 
term  "  impersonal  "  is  used  to  signify  a  state  of  mind  in 
which  the  separateness  or  individuality  of  the  individual 
ego  is  not  fully  recognized  or  appreciated  even  by  the  in- 
dividual himself.  The  prominent  element  of  the  indi- 
vidual's consciousness  is  the  unity  or  the  universalism, 
rather  than  the  multiplicity  or  individualism. 

Mr.  Lowell  in  effect  says  this  in  his  closing  chapter  en- 
titled "  Imagination."  His  thesis  seems  to  be  that  the 
universal  mind,  of  which  each  individual  receives  a  frag- 
ment, becomes  increasingly  differentiated  as  the  race  mind 
evolves.  In  proportion  as  the  evolution  has  progressed 
does  the  individual  realize  his  individuality — his  separate- 
ness ;  this  individualization,  this  differentiation  of  the  in- 
dividual mind  is,  in  his  view,  the  measure  as  well  as  the 


36o       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

cause  of  the  higher  civiHzation.  The  lack  of  such  indi- 
vidualization he  calls  "  impersonality  " ;  in  such  a  mind 
the  dominant  thought  is  not  of  the  separateness  between, 
but  of  the  unity  that  binds  together,  himself  and  the  uni- 
versal mind. 

If  the  above  is  a  correct  statement  of  the  conception  of 
those  who  emphasize  the  "  impersonality  "  of  the  Orient, 
then  there  are  two  things  concerning  it  which  may  be  said 
at  once.  First,  the  idea  is  a  perfectly  clear  and  intelligible 
one,  the  proposition  is  definite  and  tangible.  But  why  do 
they  not  so  express  it?  The  terms  "personality"  and 
"  individuality  "  are  used  synonymously ;  while  "  imper- 
sonal "  is  considered  the  equivalent  of  the  negative  of  in- 
dividual, un-individual — a  word  which  has  not  yet  been 
and  probably  never  will  be  used.  But  the  negation  of 
individual  is  universal ;  "  impersonal,"  therefore,  accord- 
ing to  the  usage  of  these  waiters,  becomes  equivalent  to 
universal. 

But,  secondly,  even  after  the  use  of  terms  has  become 
thus  understood,  and  we  are  no  longer  confused  over  the 
words,  having  arrived  at  the  idea  they  are  intended  to  con- 
vey, the  idea  itself  is  fundamentally  erroneous.  I  freely 
admit  that  there  is  an  interesting  truth  of  which  these 
writers  have  got  a  glimpse  and  to  which  they  are  striv- 
ing to  give  expression,  but  apparently  they  have  not 
understood  the  real  nature  of  this  truth  and  consequently 
they  are  fundamentally  wrong  in  calling  the  Far  East 
"  impersonal,"  even  in  their  sense  of  the  word.  They  are 
furthermore  in  error,  in  ascribing  this  "  impersonal " 
characteristic  of  the  Japanese  to  their  inherent  race  nature, 
If  they  are  right,  the  problem  is  fundamentally  one  of  bio- 
logical evolution. 

In  contrast  to  this  view,  it  is  here  contended,  first,  that 
the  feature  they  are  describing  is  not  such  as  they  describe 
it;  second,  that  it  is  not  properly  called  "  impersonality  "; 
third,  that  it  is  not  a  matter  of  inherent  race  nature,  of 
brain  structure,  or  of  mind  differentiation,  but  wholly  a 
matter  of  social  evolution ;  and,  fourth,  that  if  there  is 
such  a  trait  as  they  describe,  it  is  not  due  to  a  deficiently 
developed  but. on  the  contrary, to  a  superlatively  develoi)ed 
personality,   which  might   heller  be  called  super-person- 


THE  JAPANESE    NOT    IMPERSONAL    361 

ality.  To  state  the  position  here  advocated  in  a  nutshell, 
it  is  maintained  that  the  asserted  "  impersonality  "  of  the 
Japanese  is  the  result  of  the  communalistic  nature  of  the 
social  order  which  has  prevailed  down  to  the  most  recent 
times  ;  it  has  put  its  stamp  on  every  feature  of  the  national 
and  individual  life,  not  omitting  the  language,  the  phi- 
losophy, the  religion,  or  even  the  inmost  thoughts  of  the 
people.  This  dominance  of  the  communalistic  type  of 
social  order  has  doubtless  had  an  effect  on  the  physical 
and  psychic,  including  the  brain,  development  of  the 
people.  These  physical  and  psychical  developments,  how- 
ever, are  not  the  cause,  but  the  product,  of  the  social  order. 
They  are,  furthermore,  of  no  superlative  import,  since 
they  offer  no  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  introduction  of  a 
social  order  radically  different  from  that  of  past  millen- 
niums. 

Before  proceeding  to  elaborate  and  illustrate  this  gen- 
eral position,  it  seems  desirable  to  introduce  two  further 
definitions. 

Commvmalism  and  individualism  are  the  two  terms  used 
throughout  this  work  to  describe  two  contrasted  types  of 
social  order. 

By  communalism  I  mean  that  order  of  society,  whether 
family,  tribal,  or  national,  in  which  the  idea  and  the  im- 
portance of  the  community  are  more  or  less  clearly  recog- 
nized, and  in  which  this  idea  has  become  the  constructive 
principle  of  the  social  order,  and  where  at  the  same  time 
the  individual  is  practically  ignored  and  crushed. 

By  individualism  I  mean  that  later  order  of  society  in 
vi^hich  the  worth  of  the  individual  has  been  recognized  and 
emphasized,  to  the  extent  of  radically  modifying  the  com- 
munalism, securing  a  liberty  for  individual  act  and 
thought  and  initiative,  of  which  the  old  order  had  no  con- 
ception, and  which  it  would  have  considered  both  dan- 
gerous and  immoral.  Individualism  is  not  that  atomic 
social  order  in  which  the  idea  of  the  communal  unity  has 
been  rejected,  and  each  separate  human  being  regarded 
as  the  only  unit.  Such  a  society  could  hardly  be  called 
an  order,  even  by  courtesy.  Individualism  is  that  devel- 
oped stage  of  communalism,  wherein  the  advantages  of 
close  communal  unity  have  been  retained,  and  wherein,  at 


362       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  same  time,  the  idea  and  practice  of  the  worth  of  the 
individual  and  the  importance  of  giving  him  hberty  of 
thought  and  action  have  been  added.  Great  changes  in 
the  internal  structure  of  society  follow,  but  the  com- 
munial  unity  or  idea  is  neither  lost  nor  injured.  In  tak- 
ing up  our  various  illustrations  regarding  personality  in 
Japan,  three  points  demand  our  attention;  what  are  the 
facts?  are  they  due  to,  and  do  they  prove,  the  asserted 
"impersonality"  of  the  people?  and  are  the  facts  suffi- 
ciently accounted  for  by  the  communal  theory  of  the 
Japanese  social  order  ? 

Let  us  begin,  then,  with  the  illustration  of  which  advo- 
cates of  "  impersonality  "  make  so  nuich,  Japanese  polite- 
ness. As  to  the  reality  of  the  fact,  it  is  hardly  necessary 
that  I  present  extended  proof.  Japanese  politeness  is 
proverbial.  It  is  carried  into  the  minutest  acts  of  daily 
life;  the  holding  of  the  hands,  the  method  of  entering  a 
room,  the  sucking  in  of  the  breath  on  specific  occasions, 
the  arrangement  of  the  hair,  the  relative  places  of  honor 
in  a  sitting-room,  the  method  of  handing  guests  refresh- 
ments, the  exchange  of  friendly  gifts — every  detail  of 
social  life  is  rigidly  dominated  by  etiquette.  Not  only 
acts,  but  the  language  of  personal  address  as  well,  is 
governed  by  ideas  of  politeness  which  have  fundamentally 
affected  the  structure  of  the  language,  by  preventing  the 
development  of  personal  pronouns. 

Now  what  is  the  cause  of  this  characteristic  of  the 
Japanese?  It  is  commonly  attributed  by  writers  of  the 
impersonal  school  to  the  "  impersonality  "  of  the  Oriental 
mind.  "  Impersonality  "  is  not  only  the  occasion,  it  is  the 
cause  of  the  politeness  of  the  Japanese  people.  "  Self  is 
suppressed,  and  an  ever-present  regard  for  others  is  sub- 
stituted in  its  stead."  "  Impersonality,  by  lessening  the 
interest  in  one's  self,  induces  one  to  take  interest  in 
others."  *  Politeness  is,  in  these  passages,  attributed  to 
the  impersonal  nature  of  the  Japanese  mind.  The  fol- 
lowing quotations  show  that  this  characteristic  is  con- 
ceived of  as  inherent  in  race  and  mind  structure,  not  in 
the  social  order,  as  is  here  maintained.  "  The  nation 
grew  up  to  man's  estate,  keeping  the  mind  of  its  child- 
*  P.  88. 


THE   JAPANESE    NOT    IMPERSONAL    363 

hood."  *  "  In  race  characteristics,  he  is  yet  essentially 
the  same.  .  .  Of  these  traits  .  ,  .  perhaps  the  most 
important  is  the  great  quality  of  impersonality."  f  "  The 
peoples  inhabiting-  it  [the  earth's  temperate  zone]  grow 
steadily  more  personal  as  we  go  West.  So  unmistakable  is 
this  gradation  that  one  is  almost  tempted  to  ascribe  it  to 
cosmical  rather  than  human  causes.  .  .  The  essence  of 
the  soul  of  the  Far  East  may  be  said  to  be  impersonal- 
ity." $ 

In  his  chapter  on  "  Imagination,"  Mr.  Lowell  seeks 
to  explain  the  cause  of  the  "  impersonality  "  of  the  Orient. 
He  attributes  it  to  their  marked  lack  of  the  faculty  of 
"  imagination  " — the  faculty  of  forming  new  and  original 
ideas.  Lacking  this  faculty,  there  has  been  relatively  little 
stimulus  to  growth,  and  hence  no  possibility  of  differentia- 
tion and  thus  of  individualization. 

If  politeness  were  due  to  the  "  impersonal  "  nature  of 
the  race  mind,  it  would  be  impossible  to  account  for  the 
rise  and  decline  of  Japanese  etiquette,  for  it  should  have 
existed  from  the  beginning,  and  continued  through  all 
time,  nor  could  we  account  for  the  gross  impoliteness  that 
is  often  met  with  in  recent  years.  The  Japanese  them- 
selves deplore  the  changes  that  have  taken  place.  They 
testify  that  the  older  forms  of  politeness  were  an  integral 
element  of  the  feudal  system  and  were  too  often  a  thin 
veneer  of  manner  by  no  means  expressive  of  heart  interest. 
None  can  be  so  absolutely  rude  as  they  who  are  masters 
of  the  forms  of  politeness,  but  have  not  the  kindly  heart. 
The  theory  of  "  impersonality  "  does  not  satisfactorily 
account  for  the  old-time  politeness  of  Japan. 

The  explanation  here  offered  for  the  development  and 
decline  of  politeness  is  that  they  are  due  to  the  nature  of 
the  social  order.  Thoroughgoing  feudalism  long  main- 
tained, with  its  social  ranks  and  free  use  of  the  sword,  of 
necessity  develops  minute  unwritten  rules  of  etiquette; 
without  the  universal  observance  of  these  customs,  life 
would  be  unbearable  and  precarious,  and  society  itself 
would  be  impossible.  Minute  etiquette  is  the  lubricant 
of  a  feudal  social  order.  The  rise  and  fall  of  Japan's 
phenomenal  system  of  feudal  etiquette  is  synchronous  with 

*  P.  12.  f  P.   14.  t  P-   15. 


364       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

that  of  her  feudal  system,  to  which  it  is  due  rather  than  to 
the  asserted  "  impersonahty  "  of  the  race  mind. 

The  impersonal  theory  is  amazingly  blind  to  adverse 
phenomena.  Such  a  one  is  the  marked  sensitiveness  of 
the  middle  and  upper  classes  to  the  least  slight  or  insult. 
The  gradations  of  social  rank  are  scrupulously  observed, 
not  only  on  formal  occasions,  but  also  in  the  homes  at  in- 
formal and  social  gatherings.  Failure  to  show  the  proper 
attention,  or  the  use  of  language  having  an  insufficient 
number  of  honorific  particles  and  forms,  would  be  instantly 
interpreted  as  a  personal  slight,  if  not  an  insult.* 

Now  if  profuse  courtesy  is  a  proof  of  "  impersonality," 
as  its  advocates  argue,  what  does  morbid  sensitiveness 
prove  but  highly  developed  personality  ?  But  then  arises 
the  difficulty  of  understanding  how  the  same  individuals 
can  be  both  profusely  polite  and  morbidly  sensitive  at  one 
and  the  same  time?  Instead  of  inferring  "  imperson- 
ality "  from  the  fact  of  politeness,  from  the  two  facts  of 
sensitiveness  and  politeness  we  may  more  logioally  infer 
a  considerable  degree  of  personality.  Yet  I  would  not  lay 
much  stress  on  this  argument,  for  oftentimes  (or  is  it  al- 
ways true?)  the  weaker  and  more  insignificant  the  person, 
the  greater  the  sensitiveness.  Extreme  sensitiveness  is 
as  natural  and  necessary  a  product  of  a  highly  developed 
feudalism  as  is  politeness,  and  neither  is  particularly  due 
to  the  high  or  the  low  development  of  personality. 

Similarly  with  respect  to  the  question  of  altruism, 
which  is  practically  identified  with  politeness  by  ex- 
pounders of  Oriental  "  impersonality."     They  make  this 

*  In  their  relations  with  foreigners,  the  people,  but  especially 
the  Christians,  are  exceedingly  lenient,  forgiving  and  overlook- 
ing our  egregious  bin  nders  both  of  speech  and  of  manner,  par- 
ticularly if  they  feel  that  we  have  a  kindly  heart.  Yet  it  is  the 
uniform  experience  of  the  missionary  that  he  frequently  hiirts 
unawares  the  feelings  of  his  Japanese  fellow-workers.  Few 
thoughts  more  fre([ucntly  enter  the  mind  of  the  missionary,  as 
he  deals  with  Christian  workers,  than  how  to  say  this  needful 
truth  and  do  that  needful  deed  so  as  not  to  hurt  the  feelings  of 
those  whom  he  would  help.  The  individual  who  feels  slighted 
or  insulted  will  probably  give  no  active  sign  of  his  wound.  Ik- 
is  too  polite  or  too  politic  for  that.  He  will  merely  close  like  a 
clam  and  cease  to  have  further  cordial  feelings  and  relations 
with  the  person  who  has  hurt  him. 


THE    JAPANESE    NOT    IMPERSONAL    365 

term  (altruism)  the  virtual  equivalent  of  "  impersonality  " 
■ — interest  in  others  rather  than  in  self,  an  interest  due, 
according-  to  their  view,  to  a  lack  of  differentiation  of  the 
individual  minds ;  the  individuals,  though  separate,  still 
retain  the  universalism  of  the  original  mind-stuff.  This 
use  of  the  term  altruism  makes  it  a  very  different  thing 
from  the  quality  or  characteristic  which  in  the  West  is 
described  by  this  term. 

But  granting  that  this  word  is  used  with  a  legitimate 
meaning,  we  ask,  is  altruism  in  this  sense  an  inherent 
quality  of  the  Japanese  race  ?  Let  the  reader  glance  back 
to  our  discussion  of  the  possession  by  the  Japanese  of 
sympathy,  and  the  humane  feelings.*  We  saw  there 
marked  proofs  of  their  lack.  The  cruelty  of  the  old  social 
order  was  such  as  we  can  hardly  realize.  Altruism  that 
expresses  itself  only  in  polite  forms,  and  does  not  strive 
to  alleviate  the  suffering  of  fellow-men,  can  have  very  little 
of  that  sense,  which  this  theory  requires.  So  much  as  to 
the  fact.  Then  as  to  the  theory.  If  this  alleged  altruism 
were  inherent  in  the  mental  structure,  it  ought  to  be  a 
universal  characteristic  of  the  Japanese ;  it  should  be  all- 
pervasive  and  permanent.  It  should  show  itself  toward 
the  foreigner  as  well  as  toward  the  native.  But  such  is 
far  from  the  case.  Few  foreigners  have  received  a  hearty 
welcome  from  the  people  at  large.  They  are  suspected 
and  hated ;  as  little  room  as  possible  is  made  for  them. 
The  less  of  their  presence  and  advice,  the  better.  So  far 
as  there  is  any  interest  in  them,  it  is  on  the  ground  of 
utility,  and  not  of  inherent  good  will  because  of  a  feeling 
of  aboriginal  unity.  Of  course  there  are  many  exceptions 
to  these  statements,  especially  among  the  Christians. 
But  such  is  the  attitude  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  espe- 
cially of  the  middle  and  upper  classes  toward  the 
foreigners. 

If  \ve  turn  our  attention  to  the  opposite  phase  of  Japa- 
nese character,  namely  their  selfishness,  their  self-assert- 
iveness,  and  their  aggressiveness,  whether  as  a  nation  or 
as  individuals,  and  consider  at  the  same  time  the  recent 
rise  of  this  spirit,  we  are  again  impressed  both  with  the 
narrow  range  of  facts  to  which  the  advocates  of  "  imper- 
*  Cf.  chapter  xiii. 


366       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

sonality  "  call  our  attention,  and  also  with  the  utter  insuffi- 
ciency of  their  theory  to  account  for  the  facts  they  over- 
look. According  to  the  theory  of  altruism  and  "imper- 
sonality," these  are  characteristics  of  undeveloped  races 
and  individuals,  while  the  reverse  characteristics,  those  of 
selfishness  and  self-assertiveness,  are  the  products  of  a 
later  and  higher  development,  marks  of  strong  person- 
ality. But  neither  selfishness  nor  individual  aggressive- 
ness is  a  necessary  clement  of  developed  "  personality." 
If  it  were,  children  who  have  never  been  traiiied 
by  cultivated  mothers,  but  have  been  allowed  to  have 
their  own  way  regardless  of  the  rights  or  desires  of 
others,  are  more  highly  developed  in  "  personality  "  than 
the  adult  who  has,  through  a  long  life  of  self-discipline  and 
religious  devotion,  become  regardless  of  his  selfish  interests 
and  solicitous  only  for  the  welfare  of  others.  If  the  high 
development  of  altruism  is  equivalent  to  the  development 
of  "  impersonality,"  then  those  in  the  West  who  are  re- 
nowned for  humanity  and  benevolence  are  "  impersonal." 
while  robbers  and  murderers  and  all  who  are  regardless  of 
the  welfare  of  others  are  possessed  of  the  most  highly  de- 
veloped "  personality."  And  it  also  follows  that  highly 
developed  altruistic  benefactors  of  mankind  are  sucli, 
after  all,  because  they  are  undeveloped, — their  minds  are 
relatively  undifferentiated, — hence  their  fellow-feeling 
and  kindly  acts.  There  is  a  story  of  some  learned  wit  who 
met  a  half-drunken  boor ;  the  latter  plunged  ahead,  remark- 
ing, ''  I  never  get  out  of  the  way  of  a  fool  " ;  to  which  the 
quick  reply  came,  "  I  always  do."  According  to  this 
argument  based  on  self-assertive  aggressiveness,  the  boor 
was  the  man  possessed  of  a  strong  personality,  while  the 
gentleman  was  relatively  "  impersonal."  If  pure  selfish- 
ness and  aggressiveness  are  the  measure  of  personality, 
then  are  not  many  of  the  carnivorous  animals  endowed 
with  a  very  high  degree  of  "  personality  "? 

The  truth  is,  a  comprehensive  and  at  the  same  time  cor- 
rect contrast  between  the  East  and  the  \\Vst  cannot  be 
stated  in  terms  of  personality  and  impersonality.  They 
fail  not  only  to  take  in  all  the  facts,  but  they  fail  to  ex- 
plain even  the  facts  they  take  in.  Such  a  contrast  of  the 
East  and  the  West  can  be  stated  onlv  in  the  terms  of  com- 


THE   JAPANESE   NOT   IMPERSONAL    367 

munalism  and  individualism.  As  we  have  already  seen,* 
every  nation  has  to  pass  through  the  communal  stage,  in 
order  to  become  a  nation  at  all.  The  families  and  tribes 
of  which  it  is  composed  need  to  become  consolidated  in 
order  to  survive  in  the  struggle  for  existence  with  sur- 
rounding families,  tribes,  and  nations.  In  this  stage  the 
individual  is  of  necessity  sunk  out  of  sight  in  the  demands 
of  the  community.  This  secures  indeed  a  species  of 
altruism,  but  of  a  relatively  low  order.  It  is  communal 
altruism  which  nature  compels  on  pain  of  extermination. 
This,  however,  is  very  different  from  the  altruism  of  a 
high  religious  experience  and  conscious  ethical  devotion. 
This  latter  is  volitional,  the  product  of  character.  This 
altruism  can  arise  chiefly  in  a  social  order  where  indi- 
vidualism to  a  large  extent  has  gained  sway.  It  is  this 
variety  of  altruism  that  characterizes  the  West,  so  far  as 
the  West  is  altruistic.  But  on  the  other  hand,  in  a  social 
order  in  which  individualism  has  full  swing,  the  extreme 
of  egoistic  selfishness  can  also  find  opportunity  for  devel- 
opment. It  is  accordingly  in  the  West  that  extreme 
selfishness,  the  most  odious  of  sins,  is  seen  at  its  best,  or 
rather  its  worst. 

So  again  we  see  that  selfish  aggressiveness  and  an 
exalted  consciousness  of  one's  individuality  or  separate- 
ness  are  not  necessary  marks  of  developed  personality, 
nor  their  opposite  the  marks  of  undeveloped  personality — 
so-called  "  impersonality."  On  the  contrary,  the  reverse 
statement  would  probably  come  nearer  the  truth.  He 
who  is  intensely  conscious  of  the  great  unities  of  nature 
and  of  human  nature,  of  the  oneness  that  unites  indi- 
viduals to  the  nation  and  to  the  race,  and  who  lives  a  cor- 
responding life  of  goodness  and  kindness,  is  by  far  the 
more  developed  personality.  But  the  manifestations  of 
personality  will  vary  much  with  the  nature  of  the  social 
order.  This  may  change  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
Such  a  change  has  come  over  the  social  order  of  the  Japa- 
nese nation  during  the  past  thirty  years,  radically  modify- 
ing its  so-called  impersonal  features.  Their  primitive 
docility,  their  politeness,  their  marriage  customs,  their 
universal  adoption  of  Chinese  thoughts,  language,  and 
*  See  chapter  xxix. 


368       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

literature,  and  now,  in  recent  times,  their  rejection  of  the 
Chinese  philosophy  and  science,  their  assertiveness  in 
Korea  and  China  and  their  aggressive  attitude  toward  the 
whole  world — all  these  multitudinous  changes  and  com- 
plete reversals  of  ideals  and  customs,  point  to  the  fact  that 
the  former  characteristics  of  their  civilization  were  not 
"  impersonal,"  but  communal,  and  that  they  rested  on 
social  development  rather  than  on  inherent  nature  or  on 
deficient  mental  differentiation. 

A  common  illustration  of  Japanese  "  impersonality," 
depending  for  its  force  wholly  on  invention,  is  the  defi- 
ciency of  the  Japanese  language  in  personal  pronouns  and 
its  surplus  of  honorifics.  At  first  thought  this  argument 
strikes  one  as  very  strong,  as  absolutely  invincible  indeed. 
Surely,  if  there  is  a  real  lack  of  personal  pronouns,  is  not 
that  proof  positive  that  the  people  using  the  language, 
nay,  the  authors  of  the  language,  must  of  necessity  be  de- 
ficient in  the  sense  of  personality?  And  if  the  verbs  in 
large  numbers  are  impersonal,  does  not  that  clinch  the 
matter?  But  further  consideration  of  the  argument  and 
its  illustrations  gradually  shows  its  weakness.  At  present 
I  must  confess  that  the  argument  seems  to  me  utterl}-  fal- 
lacious, and  for  the  sufficient  reason  that  the  personal 
element  is  introduced,  if  not  always  explicitly  yet  at  least 
implicitly,  in  almost  every  sentence  uttered.  The  method 
of  its  expression,  it  is  true,  is  quite  different  from  that 
adopted  by  Western  languages,  but  it  is  none  the  less 
there.  It  is  usually  accomplished  l)y  means  of  the  titles, 
"  honorific "  particles,  and  honorific  verbs  and  nouns. 
"  Honorable  shoes  "  can't  by  any  stretch  of  the  imagina- 
tion mean  shoes  that  belong  to  me ;  every  Japanese  would 
at  once  think  "your  shoes  " ;  his  attention  is  not  distracted 
by  the  term  "  honorable  "  as  is  that  of  the  foreigner;  the 
honor  is  largely  overlooked  by  the  native  in  the  personal 
element  implied.  The  greater  the  familiarity  with  the 
language  the  more  clear  it  becomes  that  the  impressions 
of  "  impersonality  "  are  due  to  the  ignorance  of  the  for- 
eigner rather  than  to  the  real  "  impersonal  "  character  of 
the  Japanese  thought  or  mind.  In  the  Japanese  methods 
of  linguistic  expression,  politeness  and  personality  are  in- 
deed, incxlricaM\-  interwoven;  bul  lhe\-  are  not  at  all  con- 


THE   JAPANESE   NOT    IMPERSONAL    369 

fused.  The  distinctions  of  person  and  the  consciousness 
of  self  in  the  Japanese  thought  are  as  clear  and  distinct 
as  they  are  in  the  English  thought.  In  the  Japanese  sen- 
tence, however,  the  politeness  and  the  personality  cannot 
be  clearly  separated.  On  that  account,  however,  there  is 
no  more  reason  for  denying  one  element  than  the  other. 

So  far  from  the  deficiency  of  personal  pronouns  being 
a  proof  of  Japanese  "  impersonality,"  i.  e.,  of  lack  of  con- 
sciousness of  self,  this  very  deficiency  may,  with  even 
more  plausibility,  be  used  to  establish  the  opposite  view. 
Child  psychology  has  established  the  fact  that  an  early 
phenomenon  of  child  mental  development  is  the  emphasis 
laid  on  "  meum  "  and  "  tuum,"  mine  and  yours.  The 
child  is  a  thoroughgoing  individualist  in  feelings,  concep- 
tions, and  language.  The  first  personal  pronoun  is  ever 
on  his  lips  and  in  his  thought.  Only  as  culture  arises  and 
he  is  trained  to  see  how  disagreeable  in  others  is  excessive 
emphasis  on  the  first  person,  does  he  learn  to  moderate  his 
own  excessive  egoistic  tendency.  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  the 
studied  evasion  of  first  personal  pronouns  by  cultured 
people  in  the  West  is  due  to  their  developed  consciousness 
of  self?  Is  it  possible  for  one  who  has  no  consciousness 
of  self  to  conceive  as  impolite  the  excessive  use  of  egoistic 
forms  of  speech?  From  this  point  of  view  we  might 
argue  that,  because  of  the  deficiency  of  her  personal  pro- 
nouns, the  Japanese  nation  has  advanced  far  beyond  any 
other  nation  in  the  process  of  self-consciousness.  But 
this  too  would  be  an  error.  Nevertheless,  so  far  from  say- 
ing that  the  lack  of  personal  pronouns  is  a  proof  of  the 
"  impersonality  "  of  the  Japanese,  I  think  we  may  fairly 
use  it  as  a  disproof  of  the  proposition. 

The  argument  for  the  inherent  impersonality  of  the 
Japanese  mind  because  of  the  relative  lack  of  personal 
pronouns  is  still  further  undermined  by  the  discovery,  not 
only  of  many  substitutes,  but  also  of  several  words  bearing 
the  strong  impress  of  the  conception  of  self.  There  are 
said  to  be  three  hundred  words  which  may  be  used  as 
personal  pronouns — "  Boku,"  "  servant,"  is  a  common 
term  for  "  I,"  and  "  kimi,"  "  Lord,"  for  "  you  " ;  these 
words  are  freely  used  by  the  student  class.  Officials  often 
use  "  Konata,"  "  here,"  and  "  Anata,"  "  there,"  for  the 


370       EVOLUTION    OF  THE   JAPANESE 

first  and  second  persons.  "  Omayc,"  "  honorably  in 
front,"  is  used  both  condescendingly  and  honorifically ; 
"  you  whom  I  condescend  to  allow  in  my  presence,"  and 
"  you  who  confer  on  me  the  honor  of  entering  your  pres- 
ence." The  derivation  of  the  most  common  word  for  I, 
"  Watakushi,"  is  unknown,  but,  in  addition  to  its  pro- 
nominal use,  it  has  the  meaning  of  "  private."  It  has  be- 
come a  true  personal  pronoun  and  is  freely  used  by  all 
classes. 

In  addition  to  the  three  hundred  words  which  may  be 
used  as  personal  pronouns  the  Japanese  language  pos- 
sesses an  indefinite  number  of  ways  for  delicately  sug- 
gesting the  personal  element  without  its  express  utterance. 
This  is  done  either  by  subtle  praise,  which  can  then  only 
refer  to  the  person  addressed  or  by  more  or  less  bald  self- 
depreciation,  which  can  then  only  refer  to  the  first  person. 
"  Go  kanai,"  "  honorable  within  the  house,"  can  only 
mean,  according  to  Japanese  etiquette,  "  your  wife,"  or 
"  your  family,"  while  "  gu-sai,"  "  foolish  wife,"  can  only 
mean  "  my  wife."  "  Gufu."  "  foolish  father,"  "  tonji," 
"  swinish  child,"  and  numberless  other  depreciatory  terms 
such  as  "  somatsu  na  mono,"  "  coarse  thing,"  and 
"  tsumaranu  mono,"  "  worthless  thing,"  according  to  the 
genius  of  the  language  can  only  refer  to  the  first  person, 
while  all  appreciative  and  polite  terms  can  only  refer  to  the 
person  addressed.  The  terms,  "  foolish,"  "  swinish,"  etc., 
have  lost  their  literal  sense  and  mean  now  no  more  than 
"  my,"  while  the  polite  forms  mean  "  yours."  To  trans- 
late these  terms,  "  my  foolish  wife,"  "  my  swinish  son,"  is 
incorrect,  because  it  twice  translates  the  same  word.  In 
such  cases  the  Japanese  thoui^ht  is  best  expressed  by  using 
the  possessive  pronoun  and  omitting  the  derogative  ad- 
jective altogether.  Japanese  indirect  methods  for  the 
expression  of  the  personal  relation  arc  thus  tuimberless 
and  subtile.  May  it  not  be  plausiblv  argued  since  the 
European  has  onlv  a  few  blunt  pronouns  wherewith  to 
state  this  idea  while  the  Japanese  has  both  numberless 
pronouns  and  many  other  delicate  ways  of  conveying  the 
same  idea,  that  the  latter  is  far  in  advance  of  the 
European  in  the  develi-ipment  of  personality?  T  (.\o  not 
use  this  argument,  but  as  an  argument  it   seems  to  me 


THE   JAPANESE    NOT    IMPERSONAL     371 

much  more  plausible  than  that  which  infers  from  the 
paucity  of  true  pronouns  the  absence,  or  at  least  the  defi- 
ciency, of  personality. 

Furthermore,  Japanese  possesses  several  words  for  self. 
"  Onore,"  "  one's  self,"  and  "  Ware,"  "  I  or  myself,"  are 
pure  Japanese,  while  "  Ji  "  (the  Chinese  pronunciation  for 
"onore"),  "  ga,"  "self,"  and  "  shi  "  (the  Chinese  pro- 
nunciation of  "  watakushi,"  meaning  private)  are  Sinico- 
Japanese  words,  that  is,  Chinese  derived  words.  These 
Sinico-Japanese  terms  are  in  universal  use  in  compound 
words,  and  are  as  truly  Japanese  as  many  Latin,  Greek 
and  Norman-derived  words  are  real  English.  "  Ji-bun," 
"  one's  self  "  ;  "  jiman,"  "  self-satisfaction  " ;  "  ji-fu," 
"  self-assertion  "  ;  "  jinin,"  "  self-responsibility  "  ;  "  ji-bo 
ji-ki,"  "self-destruction,  self-abandonment";  "  ji-go  ji- 
toku,"  "  self-act,  self-reward  " — always  in  a  bad  sense ; 
"  ga-yoku,"  selfish  desire  " ;  "  ga-shin,"  "  selfish  heart  " ; 
"  ga  wo  oru,"  "  self-mastery  "  ;  "  muga,"  "  unselfish  "  ; 
"  shi-shin  shi-yoku,"  "  private  or  self-heart,  private  or  self- 
desire,"  that  is,  selfishness  " ;  "  shi-ai  shi-shin,"  "  private- 
or  self-love,  private-or-self  heart,"  i.  e.,  selfishness — these 
and  countless  other  compound  words  involving  the  concep- 
tion of  self,  can  hardly  be  explained  by  the  "  impersonaj," 
"  altruistic  "  theory  of  Japanese  race  mind  and  language. 
In  truth,  if  this  theory  is  unable  to  explain  the  facts  it 
recognizes,  much  less  can  it  account  for  those  it  ignores. 

To  interpret  correctly  the  phenomena  we  are  consider- 
ing, we  must  ask  ourselves  how  personal  pronouns  have 
arisen  in  other  languages.     Did  the  primitive  Occidental  '^'       '-^^ 

man  produce  them  outright  from  the  moment  that  he  dis-. 
covered  himself?  Far  from  it.  There  are  abundant  rea- 
sons for  believing  that  every  personal  pronoun  is  a  de- 
generate or,  if  you  prefer,  a  developed  noun.  Pronouns 
are  among  the  latest  products  of  language,  and,  in  the 
sphere  of  language,  are  akin  to  algebraic  symbols  in  the 
sphere  of  mathematics  or  to  a  machine  in  the  sphere  of 
labor.  A  pronoun,  whether  personal,  demonstrative,  or 
relative,  is  a  wonderful  linguistic  invention,  enabling  the 
speaker  to  carry  on  long  trains  of  unbroken  thought.  Its 
invention  was  no  more  connected  with  the  sense  of  self, 
than  was  the  invention  of  any  labor-saving  device.    The 


372        EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

Japanese  language  is  even  more  defective  for  lack  of  rela- 
tive pronouns  than  it  is  for  lack  of  personal  pronouns. 
Shall  we  argue  from  this  that  the  Japanese  people  have 
no  sense  of  relation?  Of  course  personal  pronouns  could 
not  arise  without  or  before  the  sense  of  self,  but  the  prob- 
lem is  whether  the  sense  of  self  could  arise  without  or 
exist  before  that  particular  linguistic  device,  the  personal 
pronoun?  On  this  problem  the  Japanese  language  and 
civilization  throw  conclusive  light. 

The  fact  is  that  the  ancestors  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Japanese  peoples  parted  company  so  long  ago  that  in  the 
course  of  their  respective  linguistic  evolutions,  not  only 
have  all  common  terms  been  completely  eliminated,  but 
even  common  methods  of  expression.  The  so-called  Indo- 
European  races  hit  upon  one  method  of  sentence  struc- 
ture, a  method  in  which  pronouns  took  an  important  part 
and  the  personal  pronoun  was  needed  to  express  the  per- 
sonal element,  while  the  Japanese  hit  upon  another  method 
which  required  little  use  of  pronouns  and  which  was  able 
to  express  the  personal  element  wholly  without  the  per- 
sonal pronoun.  The  sentence  structure  of  the  two  lan- 
guages is  thus  radically  different. 

Now  the  long  prevalent  feudal  social  order  has  left  its 
stamp  on  the  Japanese  language  no  less  than  on  every 
other  feature  of  Japanese  civilization.  ISIany  of  the  quasi 
personal  pronouns  are  manifestly  of  feudal  parentage. 
Under  the  new  civilization  and  in  contact  with  foreign 
peoples  who  can  hardly  utter  a  sentence  without  a  per- 
sonal pronoun,  the  majority  of  the  old  quasi  personal 
pronouns  are  dropping  out  of  use,  while  those  in  con- 
tinued use  are  fast  rising  to  the  position  of  full-fledged 
personal  pronouns.  This,  however,  is  not  due  to  the  de- 
velopment of  self-consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  people, 
but  only  to  the  development  of  the  language  in  the  direc- 
tion of  complete  and  concise  expression  of  thought.  It 
would  be  rash  to  say  that  the  feudal  social  order  accounts 
for  the  lack  of  pronouns,  personal  or  others,  from  the 
Japanese  language,  but  it  is  safe  to  maintain  that  the 
feudal  order,  with  its  many  gradations  of  social  rank, 
minute  etiquette,  and  refined  and  highly  developed  jxt- 
sonal  sensitiveness  would  adopt  and  foster  an  impersonal 


THE   JAPANESE   NOT    IMPERSONAL    373 

and  honorific  method  of  personal  allusion.  Even  though 
we  may  not  be  able  to  explain  the  rise  of  the  non-pro- 
nominal method  of  sentence  structure,  it  is  enough  if  we 
see  that  this  is  a  problem  in  the  evolution  of  language, 
and  that  Japanese  pronominal  deficiency  is  not  to  be  at- 
tributed to  lack  of  consciousness  of  self,  much  less  to  the 
inherent  "  impersonality  "  of  the  Japanese  mind. 

An  interesting  fact  ignored  by  advocates  of  the  "  im- 
personal "  theory  is  the  Japanese  inability  of  conceiving 
nationality  apart  from  personality.  Not  only  is  the  Em- 
peror conceived  as  the  living  symbol  of  Japanese  nation- 
ality, but  he  is  its  embodiment  and  substance.  The  Jap- 
anese race  is  popularly  represented  to  be  the  offspring 
of  the  royal  house.  Sovereignty  resides  completely  and 
absolutely  in  him.  Authority  to-day  is  acknowledged  only 
in  those  who  have  it  from  him.  Popular  rights  are 
granted  the  people  by  him,  and  exist  because  of  his  will 
alone.  A  single  act  of  his  could  in  theory  abrogate  the 
constitution  promulgated  in  1889  and  all  the  popular 
rights  enjoyed  to-day  by  the  nation.  The  Emperor  of 
Japan  could  appropriate,  without  in  the  least  shocking  the 
most  patriotic  Japanese,  the  long-famous  saying  of  Louis 
XIV.,  "  L'etat,  c'est  moi."  Mr.  H.  Kato,  ex-president  of 
the  Imperial  University,  in  a  recent  work  entitled  the 
"  Evolution  of  Morality  and  Law"  says  this  in  just  so 
many  words :  "  Patriotism  in  this  country  means  loy- 
alty to  the  throne.  To  the  Japanese  the  Emperor  and  the 
country  are  the  same.  The  Emperor  of  Japan,  without 
the  slightest  exaggeration,  can  say,  '  L'etat,  c'est  moi.' 
The  Japanese  believe  that  all  their  happiness  is  bound  up 
with  the  Imperial  line  and  have  no  respect  for  any  system 
of  morality  or  law  that  fails  to  take  cognizance  of  this 
fact." 

Mr.  Yamaguchi,  professor  of  history  in  the  Peeresses' 
School  and  lecturer  in  the  Imperial  Military  College,  thus 
writes  in  the  Far  East:  "  The  sovereign  power  of  the 
State  cannot  be  dissociated  from  the  Imperial  Throne. 
It  lasts  forever  along  with  the  Imperial  line  of  succession, 
unbroken  for  ages  eternal.  If  the  Imperial  House  cease 
to  exist,  the  Empire  falls."  "  According  to  our  ideas  the 
monarch  reigns  over  and  governs  the  country  in  his  own 


374       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

right.  .  .  Our  Emperor  possesses  real  sovereignty 
and  also  exercises  it.  He  is  quite  different  from  other 
rulers,  who  possess  but  a  partial  sovereignty."  This  is 
to-day  the  universally  accepted  belief  in  Japan.  It  shows 
clearly  that  national  unity  and  sovereignty  are  not  con- 
ceived in  Japan  apart  from  personality. 

One  more  point  demands  our  attention  before  bringing 
this  chapter  to  a  close.  If  "  impersonality  "  were  an  in- 
herent characteristic  of  Japanese  race  nature,  would  it  be 
possible  for  strong  personalities  to  arise? 

Mr.  Lowell  has  described  in  telling  way  a  very  common 
experience.  "  About  certain  people,"  he  says,  "  there  ex- 
ists a  subtle  something  which  leaves  its  impress  indelibly 
upon  the  consciousness  of  all  who  come  in  contact  with 
them.  This  something  is  a  power,  but  a  power  of  so 
indefinable  a  description  that  we  beg  definition  by  calling 
it  simply  the  personality  of  the  man.  .  .  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  people  who  have  no  effect  upon  us  what- 
ever. They  come  and  they  go  with  a  like  indifference. 
.  .  And  we  say  that  the  difference  is  due  to  the  per- 
sonality or  the  want  of  personality  of  the  man."*  The 
first  thing  to  which  I  would  call  attention  is  the  fact  that 
"  personality  "  is  here  used  in  its  true  sense.  It  has  no 
exclusive  reference  to  consciousness  of  self,  nor  does  it 
signify  the  effect  of  self-consciousness  on  the  conscious- 
ness of  another.  It  here  has  reference  to  those  inherent 
qualities  of  thinking  and  feeling  and  willing  which  we 
have  seen  to  be  the  essence  of  personality.  These  qual- 
ities, possessed  in  a  marked  way  or  degree,  make  strong 
personalities.  Their  relative  lack  constitutes  weak  per- 
sonality. Bare  consciousness  of  self  is  a  minor  evidence 
of  personality  and  may  be  developed  to  a  morbid  degree 
in  a  person  who  has  a  weak  personality. 

In  the  second  place  this  distinction  between  weak  and 
strong  personalities  is  as  true  of  the  Jai)anesc  as  of  the 
Occidental.  There  have  been  many  comiuanding  persons 
in  Japanese  history  ;  they  have  been  the  heroes  of  the  land. 
There  are  such  to-day.  The  most  commanding  person- 
ality of  recent  times  was,  I  suppose,  Takamori  Saigo. 
whose  very  name  is  an  inspiration  to  tens  of  thousands  of 

*  P.  20I. 


THE   JAPANESE    NOT    IMPERSONAL    375 

the  choicest  youth  of  the  nation.  Joseph  Neesima  was 
such  a  personaHty.  The  transparency  of  his  purpose,  the 
simpUcity  of  his  personal  aim,  his  unflinching  courage, 
fixedness  of  behef,  lofty  plans,  and  far-reaching  ambitions 
for  his  people,  impressed  all  who  came  into  contact  with 
him.  No  one  mingles  much  with  the  Japanese,  freely 
speaking  with  them  in  their  own  language,  but  perceives 
here  and  there  men  of  "  strong  personality "  in  the 
sense  of  the  above-quoted  passage.  Now  it  seems  to 
me  that  if  "  impersonality  "  in  the  corresponding  sense 
were  a  race  characteristic,  due  to  the  nature  of  their  psy- 
chic being,  then  the  occurrence  of  so  many  commanding 
personalities  in  Japan  would  be  inexplicable.  Heroes  and 
widespread  hero-worship  *  could  hardly  arise  were  there 
no  commanding  personalities.  The  feudal  order  lent  it- 
self without  doubt  to  the  development  of  such  a  spirit. 
But  the  feudal  order  could  hardly  have  arisen  or  even 
maintained  itself  for  centuries  without  commanding  per- 
sonalities, much  less  could  it  have  created  them.  The 
whole  feudal  order  was  built  on  an  exalted  oligarchy. 
It  was  an  order  which  emphasized  persons,  not  principles ; 
the  law  of  the  land  was  not  the  will  of  the  multitudes,  but 
of  a  few  select  persons.  While,  therefore,  it  is  beyond 
dispute  that  the  old  social  order  was  communal  in  type, 
and  so  did  not  give  freedom  to  the  individual,  nor  tend  to 
develop  strong  personality  among  the  masses,  it  is  also 
true  that  it  did  develop  men  of  commanding  personality 
among  the  rulers.  Those  who  from  youth  were  in  the 
hereditary  line  of  rule,  sons  of  Shoguns,  daimyos,  and 
samurai,  were  forced  by  the  very  communalism  of  the 
social  order  to  an  exceptional  personal  development.  They 
shot  far  ahead  of  the  common  man.  Feudalism  is  favor- 
able to  the  development  of  personality  in  the  favored  few, 
while  it  represses  that  of  the  masses.  Individualism,  on 
the  contrary,  giving  liberty  of  thought  and  act,  with  all 
that  these  imply,  is  favorable  to  the  development  of  the 
personality  of  all. 

In  view  of  the  discussions  of  this  chapter,  is  it  not 
evident  that  advocates  of  the   "  impersonal  "  theory  _  of 
Japanese  mind  and  civilization  not  only  ignore  many  im- 
*  Cf.  chapter  vii. 


376       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

portant  elements  of  the  civilization  they  attempt  to  in- 
terpret, but  also  base  their  interpretation  on  a  mistaken 
conception  of  personality?  We  may  not,  however,  leave 
the  discussion  at  this  point,  for  important  considerations 
still  demand  our  attention  if  we  would  probe  this  problem 
of  personality  to  its  core. 


XXXII 

IS  BUDDHISM  IMPERSONAL? 

A  DVOCATES  of  Japanese  "  impersonality  "  call  at- 
i\  tention  to  the  phenomena  of  self-suppression  in  re- 
.XA^ligion.  It  seems  strange,  however,  that  they  who 
present  this  argument  fail  to  see  how  "  self-suppression  " 
undermines  their  main  contention.  If  "  self-suppression  " 
be  actually  attained,  it  can  only  be  by  a  people  advanced 
so  far  as  to  have  passed  through  and  beyond  the  "  per- 
sonal "  stage  of  existence.  "  Self-suppression  "  cannot  be 
a  characteristic  of  a  primitive  people,  a  people  that  has 
not  yet  reached  the  stage  of  consciousness  of  self.  If  the 
alleged  "  impersonality  "  of  the  Orient  is  that  of  a  prim- 
itive people  that  has  not  yet  reached  the  stage  of  self- 
consciousness,  then  it  cannot  have  the  characteristic  of 
"  self-suppression."  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  "  im- 
personality "  of  "  self-suppression,"  then  it  is  radically 
different  from  that  of  a  primitive  people.  Advocates  of 
"  impersonality  "  present  both  conceptions,  quite  uncon- 
scious apparently  that  they  are  mutually  exclusive.  If 
either  conception  is  true,  the  other  is  false. 

Furthermore,  if  self-suppression  is  a  marked  character- 
istic of  Japanese  politeness  and  altruism  (as  it  undoubt- 
edly is  when  these  qualities  are  real  expressions  of  the 
heart  and  of  the  general  character),  it  is  a  still  more  char- 
acteristic feature  of  the  higher  religions  life  of  the  people, 
which  certainly  does  not  tend  to  "  impersonality."  The 
ascription  of  esoteric  Buddhism  to  the  common  people 
by  advocates  of  the  "  impersonal  "  theory  is  quite  a  mis- 
take, and  the  argument  for  the  "  impersonality  "  of  the 
race  on  this  ground  is  without  foundation,  for  the  masses 
of  the  people  are  grossly  polytheistic,  wholly  unable  to 
understand  Buddhistic  metaphysics,  or  to  conceive  of  the 
nebulous,  impersonal  Absolute  of  Buddhism.    Now  if  con- 

377 


378       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

sciousness  of  the  unity  of  nature,  and  especially  of  the 
unity  of  the  individual  soul  with  the  Absolute,  were  a 
characteristic  of  undeveloped,  that  is,  of  undifferentiated 
mind,  then  all  primitive  peoples  should  display  it  in  a 
superlative  degree.  It  should  show  itself  in  every  phase 
of  their  life.  The  more  primitive  the  people,  the  more 
divine  their  life — because  the  less  differentiated  from  the 
original  divine  mind !  Such  are  the  requirements  of  this 
theory.  But  what  are  the  facts?  The  primitive  unde- 
veloped mind  is  relatively  unconscious  of  self ;  it  is  wholly 
objective;  it  is  childlike;  it  does  not  even  know  that  there 
is  self  to  suppress.  Primitive  religion  is  purely  objective. 
Implicit,  in  primitive  religion  without  doubt,  is  the  fact 
of  a  unity  between  God  and  man,  but  the  primitive  man 
has  not  discovered  this  implication  of  his  religious  think- 
ing. This  is  the  state  of  mind  of  a  large  majority  of 
Japanese. 

Yet  this  is  by  no  means  true  of  all.  No  nation,  with 
such  a  continuous  history  as  Japan  has  had,  would  fail  to 
develop  a  class  capable  of  considerable  introspection.  In 
Japan  introspection  received  early  and  powerful  impetus 
from  the  religion  of  Buddha.  It  came  with  a  philosophy 
of  life  based  on  prolonged  and  profound  introspection. 
It  commanded  each  man  who  would  know  more  than  the 
symbols,  who  desired,  like  Buddha,  to  attain  the  great 
enlightenment  and  thus  become  a  Tathagata,  a  Blessed 
one,  a  Buddha,  an  Enlightened  one,  to  know  and  conquer 
himself.  The  emphasis  laid  by  thoughtful  Buddhism  on 
the  need  of  self-knowledge,  in  order  to  self-suppression, 
is  well  recognized  by  all  careful  students.  Advocates  of 
Oriental  "  impersonality  "  are  not  one  whit  behind  others 
in  recognizing  it.  In  this  connection  we  can  hardly  tlo 
better  than  quote  a  few  of  Mr.  Lowell's  happy  descriptions 
of  the  teaching  of  philosophic  lUiddhism. 

"  This  life,  it  says,  is  but  a  chain  of  sorrows.  .  .  These 
desires  that  urge  us  on  are  really  causes  of  all  our  woe. 
We  think  they  are  ourselves.  We  are  mistaken.  They 
are  all  illusion.  .  .  This  personality,  this  sense  of  self,  is  a 
cruel  deception.  .  .  Realize  once  the  true  soul  behind  it, 
devoid  of  attributes,  .  .  an  invisible  part  of  the  great 


IS    BUDDHISM    IMPERSONAL?  379 

impersonal  soul  of  nature,  then  .  .  .  will  you  have  found 
happniess  in  the  blissful  quiescence  of  Nirvana  "  [p.  186]. 
"  In  desire  alone  lies  all  the  ill.  Quench  the  desire,  and 
the  deeds  [sins  of  the  flesh]  will  die  of  inanition.  Get 
rid,  then,  said  Buddha,  of  these  passions,  these  strivings, 
for  the  sake  of  self.  As  a  man  becomes  conscious  that  he 
himself  is  something  distinct  from  his  body,  so  if  he  re- 
flect and  ponder,  he  will  come  to  see  that  in  like  manner, 
his  appetites,  ambitions,  hopes,  are  really  extrinsic  to  the 
spirit  proper.  .  .  Behind  desire,  behind  even  the  will, 
lies  the  soul,  the  same  for  all  men,  one  with  the  soul  of 
the  universe.  When  he  has  once  realized  this  eternal 
truth,  the  man  has  entered  Nirvana.  .  .  It  [Nirvana] 
is  simply  the  recognition  of  the  eternal  oneness  of  the 
two   [the  individual  and  the  universal  soul]  "   [p.   189]. 

Accepting  this  description  of  philosophic  Buddhism 
as  fairly  accurate,  it  is  plain  that  the  attainment  of 
this  consciousness  of  the  unity  of  the  individual  self 
with  the  universal  is  the  result,  according  to  Buddha,  and 
also  according  to  the  advocates  of  "  impersonality,"  of  a 
highly  developed  consciousness  of  self.  It  is  not  a  simple 
state  of  undifferentiated  mind,  but  a  complex  and  deriv- 
ative one — absolutely  incomprehensible  to  a  primitive 
people.  The  means  for  this  suppression  of  self  depends 
entirely  on  the  development  of  the  eonsciousness  of  self. 
The  self  is  the  means  for  casting  out  the  self,  and  it  is 
done  by  that  introspection  which  ultimately  leads  to  the 
realization  of  the  unity.  If,  then,  Japanese  Buddhism 
seeks  to  suppress  the  self,  this  very  effort  is  the  most  con- 
clusive proof  we  could  demand  of  the  possession  by  this 
people  of  a  highly  developed  consciousness  of  self. 

It  is  one  of  the  boasts  of  Buddhism  that  a  man's  sa- 
viour is  himself;  no  other  helper,  human  or  divine,  can  do 
aught  for  him.  Those  who  reject  Christianity  in  Chris- 
tian lands  are  quite  apt  to  praise  Buddhism  for  this  re- 
jection of  all  external  help.  They  urge  that  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  case  salvation  is  no  external  thing;  each 
one  must  work  out  his  ow^n  salvation.  It  cannot  be  given 
by  another.  Salvation  through  an  external  Christ  who 
lived  1900  years  ago  is  an  impossibility.     Such  a  criti- 


38o       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

cism  of  Christianity  shows  real  misunderstanding  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  and  method  of  salvation.  Yet  the 
point  to  which  attention  is  here  directed  is  not  the  cor- 
rectness or  incorrectness  of  these  characterizations  of 
Christianity,  but  rather  to  the  fact  that  "  ji-riki,"  salvation 
through  self-exertion,  which  is  the  boast  of  Buddhism,  is 
but  another  proof  of  the  essentially  self-conscious  char- 
acter of  Buddhism.  It  aims  at  Nirvana,  it  is  true,  at 
self-suppression,  but  it  depends  on  the  attainment  of  clear 
self-consciousness  in  the  first  place,  and  then  on  pro- 
longed self-exertion  for  the  attainment  of  that  end.  In 
proportion  as  Buddhism  is  esoteric  is  it  self-conscious. 

Such  being  the  nature  of  Buddhism,  we  naturally  ask 
whether  or  not  it  is  calculated  to  develop  strcMigly  person- 
alized men  and  women.  If  consciousness  of  self  is  the 
main  element  of  personality,  we  must  pronounce  Bud- 
dhism a  highly  personal  rather  than  impersonal  religion, 
as  is  commonly  stated.  But  a  religion  of  the  Buddhistic 
type,  which  casts  contempt  on  the  self,  and  seeks  its  anni- 
hilation as  the  only  means  of  salvation,  has  ever  tended 
to  destroy  personality;  it  has  made  men  hermits  and 
pessimists ;  it  has  drawn  them  out  of  the  great  current 
of  active  life,  and  thus  has  severed  them  from  their  fel- 
low-men. But  a  prime  condition  of  developed  person- 
alities is  largeness  and  intensity  of  life,  and  constant  in- 
tercourse with  mankind.  Personality  is  developed  in  the 
society  of  persons,  not  in  the  company  of  trees  and  stones. 
Buddhism,  which  runs  either  to  gross  and  superstitious 
polytheism  on  its  popular  side  or  to  pessimistic  introspec- 
tion on  its  philosophical  side,  may  possibly,  by  a  stretch 
of  the  term,  be  called  "  impersonal  "  in  the  sense  that  it 
does  not  help  in  the  production  of  strong,  rounded  per- 
sonality among  its  votaries,  but  not  in  tlie  sense  that  it 
does  not  produce  self-consciousness.  Buddhism,  there- 
fore, cannot  be  accurately  described  in  terms  of  personal- 
ity or  impersonality. 

We  would  do  well  in  this  connection  to  ponder  the  fact 
that  although  Buddhism  in  its  higher  forms  does  cer- 
tainly develop  consciousness  of  self,  it  does  not  attribute 
to  that  self  any  worth.  In  consequence  of  this,  it  never 
has  modified,  and  however  long  it  might  be  allowed  to 


I 


IS   BUDDHISM    IMPERSONAL?  381 

run  its  course,  never  could  modify,  the  general  social 
order  in  the  direction  of  individualism.  This  is  one  rea- 
son why  the  whole  Orient  has  maintained  to  modern  times 
its  communal  nature,  in  spite  of  its  high  development  in 
so  many  ways,  even  in  introspection  and  self-conscious- 
ness. 

This  failure  of  Buddhism  is  all  the  more  striking  when 
we  stop  to  consider  how  easy  and,  to  us,  natural  an  in- 
ference it  would  have  been  to  pass  from  the  perception 
of  the  essential  unity  between  the  separate  self  and  the 
universal  soul,  to  the  assertion  of  the  supreme  worth  of 
that  separate  soul  because  of  the  fact  of  that  unity.  But 
Buddhism  never  seems  to  have  made  that  inference.  Its 
compassion  on  animals  and  even  insects  depended  on  its 
doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  not  on  its  doctrine 
of  universal  soul  unity.  Its  mercy  was  shown  to  animals 
in  certain  whimsical  ways,  but  the  universal  lack  of  sym- 
pathy for  suffering  man,  man  who  could  suffer  the  most 
exquisite  pains,  exposed  the  shallowness  of  its  solicitude 
about  destroying  life.  The  whole  influence  of  Buddhism 
on  the  social  order  was  not  conducive  to  the  development 
of  personality  in  the  Orient.  The  so-called  impersonal 
influence  of  Buddhism  upon  the  Eastern  peoples,  then,  is 
not  due  to  its  failure  to  recognize  the  separateness  of  the 
human  self,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  to  its  emphasis  on  the 
universal  unity  subsisting  between  the  separate  finite  self 
and  the  infinite  soul,  on  the  other ;  but  only  on  its  failure 
to  see  the  infinite  worth  of  the  individual ;  and  in  con- 
sequence of  this  failure,  its  inability  to  modify  the  gen- 
eral social  order  by  the  introduction  of  individualism. 

The  asserted  "  impersonal  "  characteristic  of  Buddhism 
and  of  the  Orient,  therefore,  I  am  not  willing  to  call 
"  impersonality  " ;  for  it  is  a  very  defective  description, 
a  real  misnomer.  I  think  no  single  term  can  truly  de- 
scribe the  characteristic  under  consideration.  As  regards 
the  general  social  order,  the  so-called  impersonal  charac- 
teristic is  its  communal  nature ;  as  regards  the  popular 
religious  thought,  whether  of  Shintoism  or  Buddhism,  its 
so-called  impersonality  is  its  simple,  artless  objectivity ; 
as  regards  philosophic  Buddhism  its  so-called  imperson- 
ality is  its  morbid  introspective  self-consciousness,  leading 


382       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

to  the  desire  and  effort  to  annihilate  the  separateness  of 
the  self.  These  are  different  characteristics  and  cannot 
be  described  by  any  single  term.  So  far  as  there  are 
in  Japan  genuine  altruism,  real  suppression  of  selfish  de- 
sires, and  real  possession  of  kindly  feelings  for  others  and 
desires  to  help  them,  and  so  far  as  these  qualities  arise 
through  a  sense  of  the  essential  unity  of  the  human  race 
and  of  the  unity  of  the  human  with  the  divine  soul,  this 
is  not  "  impersonality  " — but  a  form  of  highly  developed 
personality — not  infra-personality,  but  true  personality. 

We  have  noted  that  although  esoteric  Buddhism  "de- 
veloped a  highly  accentuated  consciousness  of  self,  it  at- 
tributed no  value  to  that  self.  This  failure  will  not  ap- 
pear strange  if  we  consider  the  historical  reasons  for  it. 
Indeed,  the  failure  was  inevitable.  Neither  the  social 
order  nor  the  method  of  introspective  thought  suggested 
it.  Both  served,  on  the  contrary,  absolutely  to  preclude 
the  idea. 

When  introspective  thought  began  in  India  the  social 
order  was  already  far  beyond  the  undifferentiated  com- 
munal life  of  the  tribal  stage.  Castes  were  universal  and 
fixed.  The  warp  and  woof  of  daily  life  and  of  thought 
were  filled  with  the  distinctions  of  castes  and  ranks. 
Man's  worth  was  conceived  to  be  not  in  himself,  but  in  his 
rank  or  caste.  The  actual  life  of  the  people,  therefore,  did 
not  furnish  to  speculative  thought  the  slightest  suggestion 
of  the  worth  of  man  as  man.  It  was  a  positive  hindrance 
to  the  rise  of  such  an  idea. 

Equally  opposed  to  the  rise  of  this  idea  was  the  method 
of  that  introspective  thought  which  discovered  the  fact 
of  the  self.  It  was  a  method  of  abstraction;  it  denied 
as  part  of  the  real  self  everything  that  could  be  thought 
of  as  separate ;  every  changing  phase  or  expression  of 
the  self  could  not  be  the  real  self,  it  was  argued,  because, 
if  a  part  of  the  real  self,  how  could  it  sometimes  be  and 
again  not  be?  Feeling  cannot  be  a  part  of  the  real  self, 
for  sometimes  I  feel  and  sometimes  I  do  not.  Any  par- 
ticular desire  cannot  be  a  jxirt  of  my  real  self,  for  some- 
times I  have  it  and  sometimes  I  do  not.  A  similar  argu- 
ment was  applied  to  every  objective  thing.  In  the  famous 
"  Questions  of  King  Melincla,"  the  argument  as  to  the 


IS    BUDDHISM    IMPERSONAL?  383 

real  chariot  is  expanded  at  length ;  the  wheels  are  not  the 
chariot ;  the  spokes  are  not  the  chariot ;  the  seat  is  not 
the  chariot ;  the  tongue  is  not  the  chariot ;  the  axle  is  not 
the  chariot ;  and  so,  taking  up  each  individual  part  of  the 
chariot,  the  assertion  is  made  that  it  is  not  the  chariot. 
But  if  the  chariot  is  not  in  any  of  its  parts,  then  they  are 
not  essential  parts  of  the  chariot.  So  of  the  soul — the 
self;  it  does  not  consist  of  its  various  qualities  or  attri- 
butes or  powers ;  hence  they  are  not  essential  elements 
of  the  self.     The  real  self  exists  apart  from  them. 

Now  is  it  not  evident  that  such  a  method  of  introspec- 
tion deprives  the  conception  of  self  of  all  possible  value? 
It  is  nothing  but  a  bare  intellectual  abstraction.  To  say 
that  this  self  is  a  part  of  the  universal  self  is  no  relief, — 
brings  no  possible  worth  to  the  separate  self, — for  the 
conception  of  the  universal  soul  has  been  arrived  at  by 
a  similar  process  of  thought.  It,  too,  is  nothing  but  a 
bare  abstraction,  deprived  of  all  qualities  and  attributes 
and  powers.  I  can  see  no  distinction  between  the  absolute 
universal  soul  of  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism,  and  the  Ab- 
solute Nothing  of  Hegel.* 

Both  are  the  farthest  possible  abstraction  that  the  mind 
can  make.  The  Absolute  Soul  of  Buddhism,  the  Atman 
of  Brahmanism,  and  Hegel's  Nothing  are  the  farthest  pos- 
sible remove  from  the  Christian's  conception  of  God. 
The  former  is  the  utter  emptiness  of  being ;  the  latter  the 
perfect  fullness  of  being  and  completeness  of  quality. 
The  finite  emptiness  receives  and  can  receive  no  richness 
of  life  or  increase  in  value  by  its  consciousness  of  unity 

*  It  seems  desirable  to  guard  against  an  inference  that  might 
be  made  from  what  I  have  said  about  Hegel's  "Nothing." 
Hegel  saw  clearl}' that  his  "Nothing"  was  only  the  farthest 
limit  of  abstraction,  and  that  it  was  consequently  absolutely 
empty  and  worthless.  It  was  only  his  starting  point  of  thought, 
not  his  end,  as  in  the  case  of  Brahmanism  and  of  Buddhism. 
Only  after  Hegel  had  passed  the  "Nothing"  through  all  the 
successive  stages  of  thesis,  antithesis,  and  synthesis,  and  thus 
clothed  it  with  the  fullness  of  being  and  character,  did  he  con- 
ceive it  to  be  the  concrete,  actual  Absolute.  There  is,  therefore, 
the  farthest  possible  difference  between  Hegel's  Absolute  Being 
and  Buddha's  Absolute.  Hegel  sought  to  understand  and  state 
in  rational  form  the  real  nature  of  the  Christian's  conception  of 
God.     Whether  he  did  so  or  not,  this  is  not  the  place  to  say. 


384        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

with  the  infinite  emptiness;  whereas  the  finite  Hmited 
soul  receives  in  the  Christian  view  an  infinite  wealth  and 
value  by  reason  of  the  consciousness  of  its  unity  with 
the  divine  infinite  fullness.  The  usual  method  of  stating 
the  difference  between  the  Christian  conception  of  God 
and  the  Hindu  conception  of  the  root  of  all  being  is 
that  the  one  is  personal  and  the  other  impersonal.  But 
these  terms  are  inadequate.  Rather  say  the  one  is  per- 
fectly personal  and  the  other  perfectly  abstract.  Imper- 
sonality, even  in  its  strictest  meaning,  /.  e.,  without  "  con- 
scious separate  existence  as  an  intelligent  and  voluntary 
being,"  only  partially  expresses  the  conception  of  Bud- 
dhism. The  full  conception  rejects  not  only  personality, 
but  also  every  other  quality ;  the  ultimate  and  the  absolute 
of  Buddhisni — we  may  not  even  call  it  being — is  the  ab- 
solutely abstract. 

With  regard,  then,  to  the  conception  of  the  separate 
self  and  of  the  supreme  self,  the  Buddhistic  view  may 
be  called  "  impersonal,"  not  in  the  sense  that  it  lacks 
the  consciousness  of  a  separate  self ;  not  in  the  sense  that 
it  emphasizes  the  universal  unity — nay,  the  identity  of  all 
the  separate  abstract  selves  and  the  infinite  abstract  self ; 
but  in  the  sense  that  all  the  qualities  and  characteristics 
of  human  beings,  such  as  consciousness,  thought,  emotion, 
volition,  and  even  being  itself,  are  rejected  as  unreal. 
The  view  is  certainly  "  impersonal,"  but  it  is  much  more. 
My  objection  to  the  description  of  Buddhism  as  "  im- 
personal," then,  is  not  because  the  word  is  too  strong, 
but  because  it  is  too  weak ;  it  does  not  sufficiently  char- 
acterize its  real  nature.  It  is  as  much  below  materialism, 
as  materialism  is  below  monotheism.  Such  a  scheme  of 
thought  concerning  the  universe  necessarily  reacts  on 
those  whom  it  possesses,  to  destroy  what  sense  they  may 
have  of  the  value  of  human  personality;  that  which  we 
hold  to  be  man's  glory  is  broken  into  fragments  and 
thrown  away. 

But  this  does  not  constitute  the  whole  of  the  difficulty. 
This  method  of  introspective  thought  necessarily  resulted 
in  the  doctrine  of  Illusion.  Nothing  is  what  it  seems  to  be. 
The  reality  of  the  chariot  is  other  than  it  appears.  So  too 
with  the  self  and  everything  we  see  or  think.     The  igno- 


i 


IS    BUDDHISM    IMPERSONAL?  385 

rant  are  perfectly  under  the  spell  of  the  illusion  and  can- 
not escape  it.  The  deluded  mind  creates  for  itself  the 
world  of  being,  with  all  its  woes  and  evils.  The  great 
enlightenment  is  the  discovery  of  this  fact  and  the  power 
it  gives  to  escape  the  illusion  and  to  see  that  the  world  is 
nothing  but  illusion.  To  see  that  the  illusion  is  an  illu- 
sion destroys  it  as  such.  It  is  then  no  longer  an  illusion, 
but  only  a  passing  shadow.  We  cannot  now  stop  to  see 
how  pessimism,  the  doctrine  of  self-salvation,  and  the 
nature  of  that  salvation  through  contemplation  and  as- 
ceticism and  withdrawal  from  active  life,  all  inevitably 
follow  from  such  a  course  of  thought.  That  which  here 
needs  emphasis  is  that  all  this  thinking  renders  it  still 
more  impossible  to  think  of  the  self  as  having  any  in- 
trinsic worth.  On  the  contrary,  the  self  is  the  source  of 
evil,  of  illusion.  The  great  aim  of  Buddhism  is  neces- 
sarily to  get  rid  of  the  self,  with  all  its  illusions  and  pains 
and  disappointments. 

Is  it  now  clear  why  Buddhism  failed  to  reach  the  idea 
of  the  worth  of  the  individual  self?  It  was  due  to  the 
nature  of  the  social  order,  and  the  nature  of  its  intro- 
spective and  speculative  thinking.  Lacking,  therefore, 
the  conception  of  individual  worth,  we  see  clearly  why 
it  failed,  even  after  centuries  of  opportunity,  to  secure  in- 
dividualism in  the  social  order  and  a  general  development 
of  personality  either  as  an  idea  or  as  a  fact  among  any 
of  the  peoples  to  which  it  has  gone.  It  is  not  only  a  fact 
of  history,  but  we  have  seen  that  it  could  not  have  been 
otherwise.  The  very  nature  of  its  conception  of  self  and, 
in  consequence,  the  nature  of  its  conception  of  salvation 
absolutely  prohibited  it.* 

*I  remark,  in  passing,  that  Western  non-Christian  thought 
has  experienced,  and  still  experiences,  no  little  difficulty  in  con- 
ceiving the  ultimate  nature  of  being,  and  thus  in  solving  the 
problem,  into  which,  as  a  cavernous  tomb,  the  speculative  re- 
ligions of  the  Orient  have  fallen.  Western  non-Christian  sys- 
tems, whether  materialism,  consistent  agnosticism,  impersonal 
pantheism,  or  other  systems  which  reject  the  Christian  concep- 
tion of  God  as  perfect  personality  endowed  with  all  the  fullness 
of  being  and  character,  equally  with  philosophic  Buddhism,  fail 
to  provide  any  theoretic  foundation  for  the  doctrine  of  tlie  value 
of  man  as  man,  and  consequently  fail  to  provide  any  guarantee 
for  individualism  in  the  social  order  and  the  wide  development 
of  personality  among  the  masses. 


386       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

We  have  thus  far  confined  our  view  entirely  to  philo- 
sophic Buddhism.  It  is  important,  therefore,  to  state 
again  that  very  few  of  the  Japanese  people  outside  of  the 
priesthood  have  any  such  ideas  with  regard  to  the  abstract 
nature  of  the  individual,  of  the  absolute  self,  and  of  their 
mutual  relations  as  I  have  just  described.  These  ideas 
are  a  part  of  esoteric  Buddhism,  the  secret  truth,  which 
is  an  essential  part  of  the  great  enlightenment,  but  far 
too  profound  for  the  vulgar  multitudes.  The  vast  ma- 
jority, even  of  the  priesthood,  I  am  told,  do  not  get  far 
enough  to  be  taught  these  views.  The  sweep  of  such  con- 
ceptions, therefore,  is  very  limited.  That  they  are  held, 
however,  by  the  leaders,  that  they  are  the  views  of  the 
most  learned  expounders  and  the  most  advanced  students 
of  Buddhism  serves  to  explain  why  Buddhism  has  never 
been,  and  can  never  become,  a  power  in  reorganizing  so- 
ciety in  the  direction  of  individualism. 

Popular  Buddhism  contains  many  elements  alien  to 
philosophic  Buddhism.  For  a  full  study  of  the  subject 
of  this  chapter  we  need  to  ask  whether  popular  Buddhism 
tended  to  produce  "  impersonality,"  and  if  so,  in  what 
sense.  The  doctrine  of  "  ingwa,"  *  with  its  consequences 
on  character,  demands  fresh  attention  at  this  point.  Ac- 
cording to  this  doctrine  every  event  of  this  life,  even  the 
minutest,  is  the  result  of  one's  conduct  in  a  previous  life, 
and  is  unalterably  fixed  by  inflexible  law.  "  Ingwa  "  is 
the  crude  idea  of  fate  held  by  all  primitive  peoples,  stated 
in  somewhat  philosophic  and  scientific  form.  It  became 
a  central  element  in  the  thought  of  Oriental  peoples. 
Each  man  is  born  into  his  caste  and  class  by  a  law  over 
which  neither  he  nor  his  parents  have  any  control,  and 
for  which  they  are  without  responsibility.  The  misfor- 
tunes of  life,  and  the  good  fortunes  as  well,  come  by  the 
same  impartial,  inflexible  laws.  By  this  system  of  thought 
moral  responsibilit>-  is  practically  removed  from  the  in- 
dividual's shoulders.  This  doctrine  is  held  in  Japan  far 
more  widely  than  the  philosophic  doctrine  of  the  self, 
and  is  correspondingly  baleful. 

This  system  of  thought,  when  aj^plicd  to  tlio  details  of 
life,  means  that  individual  choice  and  will,  and  ihcir  eft'ect 
*  CJ .  chapter  vi. 


IS    BUDDHISM    IMPERSONAL?  387 

in  determining-  both  external  life  and  internal  character 
have  been  practically  lost  sight  of.  As  a  sociological 
fact  the  origin  of  this  conception  is  not  difficult  to  under- 
stand. The  primitive  freedom  of  the  individual  in  the 
early  communal  order  of  the  tribe  became  increasingly 
restricted  with  the  multiplication  and  development  of  the 
Hindu  peoples ;  each  class  of  society  became  increasingly 
specialized.  Finally  the  individual  had  no  choice  what- 
ever left  him,  because  of  the  extreme  rigidity  of  the  com- 
munal order.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  individual  choice 
and  will  was  allowed  no  play  whatever  in  any  important 
matter.  Good  sense  saw  that  where  no  freedom  is,  there 
moral  responsibility  cannot  be.  All  one's  life  is  prede- 
termined by  the  powers  that  be.  Thus  we  again  see  how 
vital  a  relation  the  social  order  bears  to  the  innermost 
thinking  and  belief  of  a  people. 

Still  further.  Once  let  the  idea  be  firmly  grounded  in 
an  individual  that  he  has  no  freedom  of  belief,  of  choice, 
or  of  act,  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  he  will  have  none.  "  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart, 
so  is  he."  "  According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you."  This 
doctrine  of  individual  freedom  is  one  of  those  that  can- 
not be  forced  on  a  man  who  does  not  choose  to  believe 
it.  In  a  true  sense,  it  is  my  belief  that  I  am  free  that 
makes  me  free.  As  Prof.  James  well  says,  the  doctrine 
of  the  freedom  of  the  will  cannot  be  rammed  down  any 
man's  intellectual  throat,  for  that  very  act  would  abridge 
his  real  freedom.  Man's  real  freedom  is  proved  by  his 
freedom  to  reject  even  the  doctrine  of  his  freedom.  But 
so  long  as  he  rejects  it,  his  freedom  is  only  potential.  Be- 
cause of  his  belief  in  his  bondage  he  is  in  bondage.  Now 
this  doctrine  of  fate  has  been  the  warp  and  woof  of  the 
thinking  of  the  bulk  of  the  Japanese  people  in  their 
efforts  to  explain  all  the  vicissitudes  of  life.  Not  only, 
therefore,  has  it  failed  to  stimulate  the  volitional  element 
of  the  psychic  nature,  but  in  the  psychology  of  the  Ori- 
ent little  if  any  attention  has  been  given  to  this  faculty. 
Oriental  psychology  practically  knows  nothing  of  per- 
sonality because  it  has  failed  to  note  one  of  its  central  ele- 
ments,' the  freedom  of  the  will.  The  individual,  there- 
fore, has  not  been  appealed  to  to  exercise  his  free  moral 


388       EVOLUTION    OF    THE   JAPANESE 

choice,  one  of  the  highest  prerogatives  of  his  nature. 
Moral  responsibility  has  not  been  laid  on  his  individual 
shoulders.  A  method  of  moral  appeal  fitted  to  develop 
the  deepest  element  of  his  personality  has  thus  been  pre- 
cluded. 

It  thus  resulted  that  although  philosophic  Buddhism 
developed  a  high  degree  of  self-consciousness,  yet  because 
it  failed  to  discover  personal  freedom  it  did  not  deliver 
popular  Buddhism  from  its  grinding  doctrine  of  fate, 
rather  it  fastened  this  incubus  of  social  progress  more 
firmly  upon  it.  Philosophic  and  popular  Buddhism  alike 
thus  threw  athwart  the  course  of  human  and  social  evolu- 
tion the  tremendous  obstacle  of  fatalism,  which  the  Orient 
has  never  discovered  a  way  either  to  surmount  or  evade. 
Buddhism  teaches  the  impotence  of  the  individual  will; 
it  destroys  the  sense  of  moral  responsibility ;  it  thus  fails 
to  understand  the  real  nature  of  man,  his  glory  and  power 
and  even  his  divinity,  which  the  West  sums  up  in  the 
term  personality.  In  this  sense,  then,  the  influence  of 
Buddhism  and  the  condition  of  the  Orient  may  be  called 
"  impersonal,"  but  it  is  the  impersonality  of  a  defective  re- 
ligious psychology,  and  of  communalism  in  the  social 
order.  Whether  it  is  right  to  call  this  feature  of  Japan 
"  impersonality,"  I  leave  with  the  reader  to  judge. 

We  draw  this  chapter  to  a  close  with  a  renewed  concep- 
tion of  the  inadequacy  of  the  "  impersonal  "  theory  to  ex- 
plain Japanese  religious  and  social  phenomena.  Further 
considerations,  however,  still  merit  attention  ere  we  leave 
this  subject. 


XXXIII 

TRACES  OF  PERSONALITY  IN  SHINTOISM, 
BUDDHISM,  AND  CONFUCIANISM 

REGRET  as  we  sometimes  must  the  illogicalness  of 
the  human  mind,  yet  it  is  a  providential  character- 
Listic  of  our  as  yet  defective  nature;  for  thanks  to  it 
few  men  or  nations  carry  out  to  their  complete  logical  re- 
sults erroneous  opinions  and  metaphysical  speculations. 
Common  sense  in  Japan  has  served  more  or  less  as  an  anti- 
dote for  Buddhistic  poison.  The  blighting  curse  of 
logical  Buddhism  has  been  considerably  relieved  by  vari- 
ous circumstances.  Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the 
ways  in  which  the  personality-destroying  characteristics 
of  Buddhism  have  been  lessened  by  other  ideas  and  in- 
fluences. 

First  of  all  there  is  the  distinction,  so  often  noted,  be- 
tween esoteric  and  popular  Buddhism.  Esoteric  Bud- 
dhism was  content  to  allow  popular  Buddhism  a  place  and 
even  to  invent  ways  for  the  salvation  of  the  ignorant  mul- 
titudes who  could  not  see  the  real  nature  of  the  self.  Re- 
sort was  had  to  the  use  of  magic  prayers  and  symbols 
and  idols.  These  were  bad  enough,  but  they  did  not  bear 
so  hard  on  the  development  of  personality  as  did  esoteric 
Buddhism. 

The  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  the  soul  was  like- 
wise a  relief  from  the  pressure  of  philosophic  Buddhism, 
for,  according  to  this  doctrine,  the  individual  soul  con- 
tinues to  live  its  separate  life,  to  maintain  its  independent 
identity  through  infinite  ages,  while  passing  through  the 
ten  worlds  of  existence,  from  nethermost  hell  to  highest 
heaven ;  and  the  particular  world  into  which  it  is  born 
after  each  death  is  determined  by  the  moral  character  of 
its  life  in  the  immediately  preceding  stage.     By  this  doc- 

'    389 


390        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

trine,  then,  a  practical  appeal  is  mac-le  to  the  common  man 
to  exert  his  will,  to  assert  his  personality,  and  so  far  forth 
it  was  calculated  to  undo  a  part  of  the  mischief  done  by 
the  paralyzing  doctrine  of  fate  and  illusion. 

But  a  more  important  relief  from  the  blight  of  Bud- 
dhistic doctrine  was  afforded  by  its  own  practice.  At  the 
very  time  that  it  declared  the  worthlessness  of  the  self 
and  the  impotence  of  the  wall,  it  declared  that  salvation 
can  come  only  from  the  self,  by  the  most  determined 
exercise  of  the  wall.  What  more  convincing  evidence  of 
powerful,  though  distorted,  wills  could  be  asked  than  that 
furnished  by  Oriental  asceticism  ?  Nothing  in  the 
West  exceeds  it.  As  an  idea,  then.  Buddhism  interfered 
with  the  development  of  the  conception  of  personality ; 
but  by  its  practice  it  helped  powerfully  to  develop  it  as  a 
fact  in  certain  phases  of  activity.  The  stoicism  of  the 
Japanese  is  one  phase  of  developed  personality.  It  shows 
the  presence  of  a  powerful,  disciplined  will  keeping  the 
body  in  control,  so  that  it  gives  no  sign  of  the  thoughts 
and  emotions  going  on  in  the  mind,  however  fierce  they 
may  be. 

That  in  Japan,  however,  which  has  interfered  most 
powerfully  with  the  spread  and  dominance  of  Buddhism 
has  been  the  practical  and  prosaic  Confucian  ethics.  Ap- 
parently, Confucius  never  speculated.  Metaphysics  and 
introspection  alike  had  no  charm  for  him.  He  w^as  con- 
cerned with  conduct.  His  developed  doctrine  demanded 
of  all  men  obedience  to  the  law  of  the  five  relations.  In 
spite,  therefore,  of  the  fact  that  he  said  nothing  about  in- 
dividuality and  personality,  his  system  laid  real  emphasis 
on  personality  and  demanded  its  continuous  activity.  In 
all  of  his  teachings  the  idea  of  personality  in  the  full  and 
proper  sense  of  this  word  is  always  implicit,  and  some- 
times is  quite  distinct. 

The  many  strong  and  noble  characters  which  glorify 
the  feudal  era  are  the  product  of  Japonicized  Con- 
fucianism, "  Bushido,"  and  bear  powerful  witness  to  its 
practical  emphasis  on  personality.  The  loyalty,  filial' 
piety,  courage,  rectitude,  honor,  self-control,  and  suicide' 
which  it  taught,  defective  though  we  must  |M-onounce  them 
from  certain  points  of  view,  were  yet  very  lofty  and  noble, 


TRACES    OF    PERSONALITY  391 

and  depended  for  their  realization  on  the  development  of 
personality. 

Advocates  of  the  "  impersonal  "  interpretation  of  the 
Orient  have  much  to  say  about  pantheism.  They  assert 
the  difficulty  of  conveying  to  the  Oriental  mind  the  idea  of 
the  personality  of  the  Supreme  Being.  Although  some 
form  of  pantheism  is  doubtless  the  belief  of  the  learned, 
the  evidence  that  a  personal  conception  of  deity  is  wide- 
spread among  the  people  seems  so  manifest  that  I  need 
hardly  do  more  than  call  attention  to  it.  This  belief  has 
helped  to  neutralize  the  paralyzing  tendency  of  Buddhist 
fatalistic  pantheism. 

Shinto  is  personal  from  first  to  last.  Every  one  of  its 
myriads  of  gods  is  a  personal  being,  many  of  them  deified 
men. 

The  most  popular  are  the  souls  of  men  who  became 
famous  for  some  particularly  noble,  brave,  or  admirable 
deed.  Hero-worship  is  nothing  if  not  personal.  Fur- 
thermore, in  its  doctrine  of  "  San-shin-ittai,"  "  three 
gods,  one  body,"  it  curiously  suggests  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity. 

Popular  Buddhism  holds  an  equally  personal  concep- 
tion of  deity.  The  objects  of  its  worship  are  personifica- 
tions of  various  qualities.  "  Kwannon,"  the  goddess  of 
mercy ;  "  Jizo,"  the  guardian  of  travelers  and  children ; 
"  Emma  O,"  "  King  of  Hell,"  who  punishes  sinners ; 
"Fudo  Sama,"  "The  Immovable  One,"  are  all  personifica- 
tions of  the  various  attributes  of  deity  and  are  worshiped 
as  separate  gods,  each  being  represented  by  a  uniform 
type  of  idol.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Buddhism,  which 
started  out  with  such  a  lofty  rejection  of  deity,  finally  fell 
to  the  worship  of  idols,  whereas  Shinto,  which  is  peculiarly 
the  worship  of  personality,  has  never  stooped  to  its 
representation  in  wood  or  stone. 

Confucianism,  however,  surpasses  all  in  its  intimations 
of  the  personality  of  the  Supreme  Being.  Although  it 
never  formulated  this  doctrine  in  a  single  term,  nor  defi- 
nitely stated  it  as  a  tenet  of  religion,  yet  the  entire  ethical 
and  religious  thinking  of  the  classically  educated  Japa- 
nese is  shot  through  with  the  idea.  Consider  the  Chinese 
expression  "  Jo-Tei,"  which  the  Christians  of  Japan  freely 


392       EVOLUTION    OF   THE    JAPANESE 

use  for  God ;  it  means  literally  "  Supreme  Emperor,"  and 
refers  to  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  universe ;  he  is  here  con- 
ceived in  the  form  of  a  human  ruler  having  of  course  hu- 
man, that  is  to  say,  personal,  attributes.  A  phrase  often 
heard  on  the  lips  of  the  Japanese  is : 

"  Aoide  Ten  ni  hajizu;  fushite  Chi  ni  hajizu." 

"Without  self-reproach,  whether  looking  up  to  Heaven, 
or  down  to  Earth." 

This  phrase  has  reference  to  the  consciousness  of  one's 
life  and  conduct,  such  that  he  is  neither  ashamed  to  look- 
up in  the  face  of  Heaven  nor  to  look  about  him  in  the 
presence  of  man.  Paul  expressed  this  same  idea  when  he 
Vi^rote  "  having  a  conscience  void  of  offense  to  God  and 
to  man."     Or  take  another  phrase  : 

"  Ten-mc  kwaikwai  so  ni  shite  morasazu." 

"  Heaven's  net  is  broad  as  earth ;  and  though  its  meshes 
are  large,  none  can  escape  it."  This  is  constantly  used  to 
illustrate  the  certainty  that  Heaven  punishes  the  wicked. 

"  Ten  ni  kuchi  ari ;  kabe  ni  mimi  ari." 

"  Heaven  has  a  mouth  and  even  the  wall  has  ears,"  sig- 
nifies that  all  one  does  is  known  to  the  ruler  of  heaven  and 
earth.  Another  still  more  striking  saying  ascribing 
knowledge  to  Heaven  is  the  "  Yoshin  no  Shichi,"  "  the 
four  knowings  of  Yoshin."  This  sage  was  a  Chinaman  of 
the  second  century  a.  d.  Approached  with  a  large  bribe 
and  urged  to  accept  it  with  the  assurance  that  no  one 
would  know  it,  he  replied,  "  Heaven  knows  it ;  Earth 
knows  it ;  you  know  it ;  and  I  know  it.  How  say  you  that 
none  will  know  it?"  This  famous  saying  condemning 
bribery  is  well  known  in  Japan.  The  references  to 
"  Heaven  "  as  knowing,  seeing,  doing,  sympathizing,  will- 
ing, and  always  identifying  the  activity  of  "  Heaven  " 
with  the  noblest  and  loftiest  ideals  of  man,  are  frequent 
in  Chinese  and  Japanese  literature.  The  personality  of 
God  is  thus  a  doctrine  clearly  foreshadowed  in  the  Orient. 
It  is  one  of  those  great  truths  of  religion  which  the 
Orient  has  already  received,  but  which  in  a  large  measure 
lies  dormant  because  of  its  incomplete  expression.  The 
advent  of  the  fully  ex]:)ressed  teaching  of  this  truth,  freed 
from  all  vagueness  and  ambiguity,  is  a  caj)ital  illustration 
of  the  way  in  which  Cln-istianit}'  comes  to  Japan  io  fuUill 


TRACES    OF    PERSONALITY  393 

rather  than  to  destroy;  it  bring-s  that  fructifyino-  element 
that  stirs  the  older  and  more  or  less  imperfectly  expressed 
truths  into  new  life,  and  gives  them  adequate  modes  of 
expression.  But  the  point  to  which  I  am  here  calling  at- 
tention is  the  fact  that  the  idea  of  the  personality  of  the 
Supreme  Being  is  not  so  utterly  alien  to  Orientalthought 
as  some  would  have  us  think.  Even  though  there  is  no 
single  word  with  which  conveniently  to  translate  the  term, 
the  idea  is  perfectly  distinct  to  any  Japanese  to  whom  its 
meaning  is  explained. 

The  statement  is  widely  made  that  because  the  Japanese 
language  has  no  term  for  "  personality  "  the  people  are 
lacking  in  the  idea ;  that  consequently  they  have  difficulty 
in  grasping  it  even  when  presented  to  them,  and  that  as  a 
further  consequence  they  are  not  to  be  criticised  for  their 
hesitancy  in  accepting  the  doctrine  of  the  "  Personality  of 
God."  It  must  be  admitted  that  if  "  personality  "  is  to  be 
defined  in  the  various  ambiguous  and  contradictory  ways 
in  which  we  have  seen  it  defined  by  advocates  of  Oriental 
"  impersonality  "  much  can  be  said  in  defense  of  their  hesi- 
tancy. Indeed,  no  thinking  Christian  of  the  Occident  for 
a  moment  accepts  it.  But  if  "  personality  "  is  defined  in 
the  way  here  presented,  which  I  judge  to  be  the  usage  of 
thoughtful  Christendom,  then  their  hesitancy  cannot  be 
so  defended.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  there  is  in  Japa- 
nese no  single  word  corresponding  to  our  term  "  person- 
ality." But  that  is  likewise  true  of  multitudes  of  other 
terms.  The  only  significance  of  this  fact  is  that  Oriental 
philosophy  has  not  followed  in  exactly  the  same  lines  as 
the  Occidental.  As  a  matter  of  fact  I  have  not  found  the 
idea  of  personality  to  be  a  difiicult  one  to  convey  to  the 
Japanese,  if  clear  definitions  are  used.  The  Japanese  lan- 
guage has,  as  we  have  seen,  many  words  referring  to  the 
individuality,  to  the  self  of  manhood ;  it  merely  lacks  the 
general  abstract  term,  "  personality."  This  is,  however, 
in  keeping  with  the  general  characteristics  of  the  lan- 
guage. Abstract  terms  are,  compared  with  English, 
relatively  rare.  Yet  with  the  new  civilization  they  are 
being  coined  and  introduced.  Furthermore,  the  English 
term  "  personality  "  is  readily  used  by  the  great  majority 
of  educated  Christians  just  as  they  use  such  words  as 


394        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

"  life,"  "  power,"  "  success,"  "  patriotism,"  and  "  Chris- 
tianity." 

In  the  summer  of  1898,  with  the  Rev.  C.  A.  Clark  I  was 
invited  to  speak  on  the  "  Outlines  of  Christianity  "  in  a 
school  for  Buddhist  priests.  At  the  close  of  our  thirty- 
minute  addresses,  a  young  man  arose  and  spoke  for  fifty 
minutes,  outlining  the  Buddhist  system  of  thought ;  his 
address  consisted  of  an  exposition  of  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect ;  he  also  stated  some  of  the  reasons  why  the  Chris- 
tian conception  of  God  and  the  universe  seemed  to  him 
utterly  unsatisfactory ;  the  objections  raised  were  those 
now  current  in  Japan — such,  for  example,  as  that  if  God 
really  were  the  creator  of  the  universe,  why  are  some  men 
rich  and  some  poor,  some  high-born  and  some  low-born. 
He  also  asked  the  question  who  made  God?  In  a  two- 
minute  reply  I  stated  that  his  objections  showed  that  he 
did  not  imderstand  the  Christian's  position ;  and  I  asked 
in  turn  what  was  the  origin  of  the  law  of  cause  and  effect. 
The  following  day  the  chief  priest,  the  head  of  the  school 
and  its  most  highly  educated  instructor,  dined  with  us. 
We  of  course  talked  of  the  various  aspects  of  Christian  and 
Buddhist  doctrine.  Finally  he  asked  me  how  I  would  an- 
swer the  question  as  to  who  created  God,  and  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  law  of  cause  and  effect.  I  explained  as 
clearly  as  I  could  the  Christian  view  of  God,  in  his  per- 
sonality and  as  being  the  original  and  only  source  of  all 
existence,  whether  of  physical  or  of  human  nature.  He 
seemed  to  drink  it  all  in  and  expressed  his  satisfaction  at 
the  close  in  the  words,  "  Taihen  ni  man  zoku  shimashita," 
"  That  is  exceedingly  satisfactory  " ;  these  words  he  re- 
peated several  times.  This  is  not  my  first  personal  proof  of 
the  fact  that  the  idea  of  personality  is  not  alien  or  incom- 
prehensible to  the  Orient,  nor  even  to  a  Buddhist  priest, 
steeped  in  Buddhist  speculation,  provided  the  idea  is 
clearly  stated. 

Ik'forc  bringing  to  a  close  this  discussion  of  the  prob- 
lem of  personality  in  Japan,  it  would  seem  desirable  to 
trace  the  history  of  the  development  of  Japanese  person- 
ality. In  view  of  all  that  has  now  been  said,  and  not  for- 
getting what  was  said  as  to  the  principles  of  National 
Evolution,*  this  may  be  done  in  a  paragraph. 
*  Foot  of  cliaiUer  .\xi.\. 


TRACES    OF    PERSONALITY  395 

The  amalgamation  of  tribes,  the  development  of  large 
clans,  and  finally  the  establishment  of  the  nation,  with 
world-wide  relations,  has  reacted  on  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  people,  giving  them  larger  and  richer  lives. 
This  constitutes  one  important  element  of  personal  devel- 
opment. The  subordination  of  individual  will  to  that  of 
the  group,  the  desire  and  effort  to  live  for  the  advantage, 
not  of  the  individual  self,  but  of  the  group,  whether 
family,  tribe,  clan,  nation,  or  the  world,  is  not  a  limitation 
of  personality.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  its  expansion  and 
development.  Shinto  and  Japonicized  Confucianism  con- 
tributed powerful  motives  to  this  subordination,  and  thus 
to  this  personal  development.  These  were  attended,  how- 
ever, by  serious  limitations  in  that  they  confined  their  at- 
tention to  the  upper  and  ruling  classes.  The  development 
of  personality  was  thus  extremely  limited.  Buddhism 
contributed  to  the  development  of  Japanese  personality  in 
so  far  as  it  taught  Japanese  the  marvels  revealed  by  intro- 
spection and  self -victory.  Its  contribution,  however,  was 
seriously  hampered  by  defects  already  sufficiently  empha- 
sized. Japan  has  developed  personality  to  a  high  degree 
in  a  few  and  to  a  relatively  low  degree  in  the  many.  The 
problem  confronting  New  Japan  is  the  development  of  a 
high  degree  of  personality  among  the  masses.  This  is  to 
be  accomplished  by  the  introduction  of  an  individualistic 
social  order. 

One  further  topic  demands  our  attention  in  closing. 
What  is  the  nature  of  personal  heredity  ?  Is  it  biological 
and  inherent,  or,  like  all  the  characteristics  of  the  Japa- 
nese people  thus  far  studied,  is  personality  transmitted  by 
social  heredity?  Distinguishing  between  intrinsic  or  in- 
herent personality,*  which  constitutes  the  original  endow- 
ment differentiating  man  from  animal,  and  extrinsic  or 
acquired  personality,  which  consists  of  the  various  forms 
in  which  the  inherent  personality  has  manifested  itself  in 
the  different  races  of  men  and  the  different  ages  of  his- 
tory, it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  latter  is  transmitted  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  association  or  social  heredity.  Intrinsic 
personality  can  be  inherited  only  by  lineal  offspring,  pass- 
ing from  father  to  son.  Extrinsic  personality  may  fail 
*  Chapter  xxxiii.  p.  498. 


396        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

to  be  inherited  by  lineal  descwulants  and  may  be  inherited 
by  others  than  lineal  descendants.  It  is  transmitted  and 
determined  by  social  inheritance.  Yet  it  is  through  per- 
sonality that  the  individual  may  break  away  from  the 
dominant  currents  of  the  social  order,  and  become  thus 
the  means  for  the  transformation  of  that  order.  The 
secret  of  social  progress  lies  in  personality.  In  proportion 
as  the  social  order  is  fitted,  accordingly,  widely  to  develop 
high-grade  personality,^'^  is  its  own  progress  rapid  and 
safe. 

Does  acquired  personality  react  on  intrinsic  personality? 
This  is  the  problem  of  "  the  inheritance  of  acquired  charac- 
teristics." Into  this  problem  I  do  not  enter  further  than 
to  note  that  in  so  far  as  newly  developed  personal  traits 
produce  transformations  of  body  and  brain  transmittable 
from  parent  to  offspring  by  the  bare  fact  of  parentage,  in 
that  degree  does  acquired  pass  over  into  intrinsic  person- 
ality and  thereby  become  intrinsic.  In  regard  to  the  de- 
gree in  which  acquired  has  passed  over  into  intrinsic  per- 
sonality, thus  differentiating  the  leading  races  of  mankind, 
we  contend  that  it  is  practically  non-existent.     The  phe- 

*  It  seems  desirable  to  append  a  brief  additional  statement 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  "  personality  of  God,"  and  its  accepta- 
bility to  the  Japanese.  I  wish  to  make  it  clear,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  difficulties  felt  by  the  Japanese  in  adopting  this  doc- 
trine are  not  due  primarily  to  the  deficiency  either  of  the  Jap- 
anese language  or  to  the  essential  nature  of  the  Japanese  mind, 
that  is  to  say,  because  of  its  asserted  structural  "  impersonal- 
ity." We  have  seen  how  the  entire  thought  of  the  people,  and 
even  the  direct  moral  teachings,  imply  both  the  fact  of  person- 
ality in  man,  and  also  its  knowledge.  The  religious  teachings, 
likewise,  imply  the  personality  even  of  "  Heaveii." 

That  there  are  philosophical  or,  more  correctly  speaking, 
metaphysical  difficulties  attending  this  doctrine,  I  am  well 
aware;  and  that  they  arc  felt  by"  some  few  Japanese,  I  also 
know.  But  I  maintain  that  these  difficulties  have  been  imported 
from  tlie  West.  The  difficulties  raised  by  a  sensational  philos- 
ophy wliich  results  in  denying  the  reality  even  of  man's  psychic 
nature,  no  less  than  the'  difficulties  due  to  a  tlioroughgoing 
idealism,  have  both  been  introduced  among  educated  Japanese 
and  have  found  no  little  response.  I  am  persuaded  thai  the  real 
causes  of  the  doubt  entertained  by  a  few  of  the  Christians  in 
Japan  as  to  the  personality  of  God  are  of  foreign  origin.  These 
doubts  are  to  be  answered  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  the  same 
difficulties  are  answered  in  other  lands.     It  niusL  be  shown  that 


TRACES    OF    PERSONALITY  397 

nomena  of  personality  characterizing  the  chief  races  of 
men  are  due,  not  to  intrinsic,  but  to  acquired  personaHty ; 
in  other  words  they  are  the  products  of  the  respective 
social  orders  and  are  transmitted  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration by  social  rather  than  by  biological  heredity. 

the  sensational  and  "positive"  philosophies,  ending  in  agnos- 
ticism as  to  all  the  great  problems  of  life  and  of  reality,  are 
essentially  at  fault  in  not  recognizing  the  nature  of  the  mind 
that  knows.  The  searching  criticism  of  these  assumptions  and 
methods  made  b}^  T.  H.  Green  and  other  careful  thinkers,  and  to 
which  no  answer  has  been  made  by  the  sensational  and  agnostic 
schools  of  thought,  needs  to  be  presented  in  intelligible  Japanese 
for  the  fairly  educated  Japanese  student  and  layman.  So,  too, 
the  discussions  of  such  writers  and  philosophical  thinkers  as 
Seth,  and  Illingworth,  and  especially  Lotze,  whose  discussions 
of  "personality"  are  unsurpassed,  should  be  presented  to  Jap- 
anese thinkers  in  native  garb.  But,  again  I  repeat,  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  difficulty  felt  in  Japan  on  these  subjects  is  due  not 
to  the  "impersonality"  of  the  language  or  the  native  mind,  or 
to  the  hitherto  prevalent  religions,  biit  wholly  to  the  imported 
philosophies  and  sciences.  The  individuals  who  feel  or  at  least 
express  any  sense  of  difficulty  on  these  topics — so  far  at  least  as 
my  knowledge  of  the  subject  goes — are  not  those  who  know 
nothing  but  their  own  language  and  their  own  native  religions, 
but  rather  those  who  have  had  exceptional  advantages  in  for- 
eign study,  many  of  them  having  spent  years  abroad  in  Western 
universities.  They  furnish  a  fresh  revelation  of  the  quickness 
with  which  the  Japanese  take  up  with  new  ideas.  They  did  not 
evolve  these  difficulties  for  themselves,  but  gathered  them  from 
their  reading  of  Western  literature  and  by  "their  mingling  with 
men  of  unevangelical  temper  and  thought  in  the  West. 


XXXIV 

THE   BUDDHIST   WORLD-VIEW 

FULLY  to  comprehend  the  genius  and  history  of 
Japan  and  her  social  order,  we  need  to  gain  a  still 
more  thorough  insight  into  the  various  conceptions 
of  the  universe  that  have  influenced  the  people.  What 
have  been  their  views  as  to  the  nature  of  the  ultimate 
reality  lying  behind  all  phenomena?  What  as  to  the  re- 
lation of  mankind  to  that  Ultimate  Reality?  And  what 
has  been  the  relation  of  these  world-views  to  the  social 
order?  To  prepare  the  way  for  our  final  answer  to  these 
questions,  we  confine  ourselves  in  this  chapter  to  a  study 
of  the  inner  nature  of  the  Buddhist  world-view. 

Since  the  Buddhist  conception  of  the  Ultimate  Reality 
and  of  the  universe  is  one  of  the  three  important  types  of 
world-views  dominating  the  human  mind,  a  type  too  that 
is  hardly  known  in  Western  lands,  in  order  to  set  it  forth 
in  terms  intelligible  to  the  Occidental  and  the  Christian,  it 
will  be  necessary  in  expoiniding  it  to  contrast  it  with  the 
two  remaining  types  ;  namely,  the  Greek  and  the  Christian. 
As  already  pointed  out,  according  to  the  P)uddhistic 
conception,  the  Ultimate  is  a  thoroughgoing  Abstraction. 
All  the  elements  of  personality  are  denied.  It  is  perfectly 
passionless,  perfectly  thoughtless,  and  perfectly  motion- 
less. It  has  neither  feeling,  idea,  nor  wall.  As  a  conse- 
quence, the  phenomena  of  the  universe  are  wholly  unre- 
lated to  it ;  all  that  is,  is  only  illusion ;  it  has  no  reality  of 
being.  Human  beings  who  think  the  world  real,  and  who 
think  even  themselves  real,  are  under  the  spell.  This 
illusion  is  the  great  misery  and  source  of  pain.  Salvation 
is  the  discovery  of  the  illusion  ;  and  this  discovery  is  the 
victory  over  it ;  for  no  one  fears  the  lion's  skin,  however 
much  he  may  fear  the  lion.  This  discovery  secures  the 
dropping  back  frotu  the  little,  limited,  individual  self-line. 

398 


THE    BUDDHIST    WORLD-VIEW         399 

into  the  infinite  passionless,  thoughtless,  and  motionless 
existence  of  the  absolute  being,  Nirvana. 

The  Ancient  Greek  and  not  a  little  modern  thought, 
conceived  of  the  Ultimate  as  a  thorough-going  intel- 
lectualism.  One  aspect  of  personality  was  perceived  and 
emphasized.  God  was  conceived  as  a  thinker,  as  one  who 
contemplates  the  universe.  He  does  not  create  matter, 
nor  force,  nor  does  he  rule  them.  They  are  eternal  and 
real,  and  subject  to  fate.  God  simply  observes.  He  is 
absolute  reason.  The  Greek  view  is  thus  essentially 
dualistic.  Sin,  from  the  Greek  point  of  view,  is  merely 
ignorance,  and  salvation  the  attainment  of  knowledge. 

In  vital  and  vitalizing  contrast  to  both  the  Buddhist  and 
Greek  conceptions  is  the  Judseo-Christian.  To  the  Chris- 
tian the  Ultimate  is  a  thoroughgoing  personality.  To  him 
the  central  element  in  God  is  will,  guided  by  reason  and 
controlled  by  love  and  righteousness.  God  creates  and 
rules  everything.  There  is  nothing  that  is  not  wholly  sub- 
ject to  him.  There  is  no  dualism  for  the  Christian,  nor 
any  illusion.  Sin  is  an  act  of  human  will,  not  an  illusion 
nor  a  failure  of  intellect.  Salvation  is  the  correction  of 
the  will,  which  comes  about  through  a  "  new  birth." 

The  elemental  difference,  then,  between  these  three  con- 
ceptions of  the  Ultimate  is  that  in  Buddhism  the  effort  to 
rationalize  and  ethicize  the  universe  of  experience  is  aban- 
doned as  a  hopeless  task;  the  world  entirely  and  com- 
pletely resists  the  rational  and  ethical  process.  The  uni- 
verse is  pronounced  completely  irrational  and  non-moral. 
Change  is  branded  as  illusion.  There  is  no  room  for 
progress  in  philosophic,  thoroughgoing  Buddhism. 

In  the  Greek  view  the  universe  is  subject  in  part  to  the 
rationalizing  process ;  but  only  in  part.  The  effort  at  ethi- 
cization  is  entirely  futile.  The  Greek  view,  equally  with 
the  Buddhistic,  is  at  a  loss  to  understand  change.  It  does 
not  brand  it  as  unreal,  but  change  produced  by  man  is 
branded  as  a  departure  from  nature.  Greeks  and  Hindus 
alike  have  no  philosophy  of  history.  In  the  Christian  view 
the  universe  is  completely  subject  to  the  rational  and  eth- 
ical process.  God  is  creator  of  all  that  is  and  it  is  neces- 
sarily good.  God  is  an  active  will  and  He  is,  therefore,  still 
in  the  process  of  creating ;  hence  change,  evolution,  is  justi- 


400       EVOLUTION    OF    THE    JAPANESE 

fied  and  understood.  History  is  rational  and  has  a  phi- 
losophy. Evolution  and  revelation  have  their  place  at 
the  very  heart  of  the  universe.  Hence  it  is  that  science, 
philosophy,  and  history,  in  a  word  a  high-grade  civiliza- 
tion, finds  its  intellectual  justification,  its  foundation,  its 
primary  postulates,  its  possibility,  only  in  a  land  permeated 
with  the  Christian  idea  of  God. 

In  the  Buddhistic  conception  God  is  an  abstract 
vacuity ;  in  the  Greek,  a  static  intellect ;  in  the  Christian,  a 
dynamic  will.  As  is  the  conception  of  God,  so  is  the  con- 
ception and  character  of  man.  The  two  are  so  intimately 
interdependent  that  it  is  useless  at  this  time  to  discuss 
which  is  the  cause  and  which  the  result.  They  are  doubt- 
less the  two  aspects  of  the  same  movement  of  thought. 
The  following  differences  are  necessary  characteristics  of 
the  three  religions : 

The  Buddhist  seeks  salvation  through  the  attainment  of 
vacuity — Nirvana — in  order  to  escape  from  the  world  in 
which  he  says  there  is  no  reason  and  no  morality.  The 
Greek  seeks  salvation  through  the  activity  of  the  intellect ; 
all  that  is  needful  to  salvation  is  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
The  Christian  seeks  salvation  through  the  activity  of  the 
will ;  this  is  secured  through  the  new  birth.  The  Bud- 
dhist leaves  each  man  to  save  himself  from  his  illusion  by 
the  discovery  that  it  is  an  illusion.  The  Greek  relies  on 
intellectual  education,  on  philosophy — the  Christian 
recreates  the  will.  The  Buddhist  and  Greek  gods  make 
no  effort  to  help  the  lost  man.  The  Christian  God  is 
dominated  by  love ;  He  is  therefore  a  missionary  God, 
sending  even  His  only  begotten  Son  to  reconcile  and  win 
the  world  of  sinning,  willful  children  back  to  Himself. 

In  Buddhism  salvation  is  won  only  by  the  few  and  after 
ages  of  toil  and  ceaseless  re-births.  In  the  Greek  plan 
only  the  philosopher  who  comes  to  full  understanding  can 
attain  salvation.  In  the  Christian  plan  salvation  is  for 
all,  for  all  are  sons  of  God,  in  fact,  and  may  through  Christ 
become  so  in  consciousness.  In  the  Buddhistic  plan  the 
hopeless  masses  resort  to  magic  and  keep  on  with  their 
idolatry  and  countless  gross  sui^crstitions.  In  the  Greek 
plan  the  hopeless  resort  to  the  "  mysteries  "  for  the  at- 
tainment of  salvalit)n.     In  the  Christian   plan   there  are 


THE    BUDDHIST   WORLD-VIEW        401 

no  hopeless  masses,  for  all  may  gain  the  regenerated  will 
and  become  conscious  sons  of  God. 

The  Buddhist  mind  gave  up  all  effort  to  grasp  or  even 
to  understand  reality.  The  Greek  mind  thought  it  could 
arrive  at  reality  through  the  intellect.  But  two  thousand 
years  of  philosophic  study  and  evolution  drove  philosophy 
into  the  absurd  positions  of  absolute  subjective  idealism  on 
the  one  hand  and  sensationalism  and  absolute  materialism 
on  the  other.  The  Christian  mind  lays  emphasis  on  the 
will  and  accordingly  is  alone  able  to  reach  reality,  a 
reality  justifiable  alike  to  the  reason  and  to  the  heart.  For 
will  is  the  creative  faculty  in  man  as  well  as  in  God.  As 
God  through  His  will  creates  reality,  so  man  through  his 
will  first  comes  to  know  reality.  Mere  intellect  can  never 
pass  over  from  thought  to  being.  Being  can  be  known  as 
a  reality  only  through  the  will. 

In  consequence  of  the  above-stated  methods  of  thought, 
the  Buddhist  was  of  necessity  a  pessimist ;  the  Greek  only 
less  so;  while  the  Jew  and  the  Christian  could  alone  be 
thoroughgoing  optimists.  The  Buddhist  ever  asserts  the 
is-not ;  the  Greek,  the  is ;  while  the  Jew  and  Christian 
demand  the  ought-to  be,  as  the  supreme  thing.  Hence 
flows  the  perennial  life  of  the  Christian  civilization. 

Those  races  and  civilizations  whose  highest  and  deepest 
conception  of  the  ultimate  is  that  of  mere  reason,  no  less 
than  those  races  and  civilizations  whose  highest  and 
deepest  conception  of  reality  is  that  of  an  abstract  empti- 
ness, must  be  landed  in  an  unreal  world,  must  arrive  at 
irrational  results,  for  they  have  not  taken  into  account  the 
most  vital  element  of  thought  and  life.  Such  races  and 
civilizations  cannot  rise  to  the  highest  levels  of  which  man 
is  capable ;  they  must  of  necessity  give  way  to  those  races 
and  that  civilization  which  build  on  larger  and  more  com- 
plete foundations,  which  worship  Will,  Human  and 
Divine,  and  seek  for  its  larger  development  both  in  self 
and  in  all  mankind. 

But  I  must  not  pause  to  trace  the  contrasts  further. 
Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  source  of  Occidental  be- 
lief in  the  infinite  worth  of  man.  In  almost  diametrical 
contrast  to  the  Buddhist  conception,  according  to  the 
Christian  view,  man  is  a  real  being,  living  in  a  real  world, 


402       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

involved  in  a  real  intellectual  problem,  fighting  a  real 
battle,  on  whose  issue  hang  momentous,  nay,  infinite  re- 
sults. So  great  is  man's  value,  not  only  to  himself,  but 
also  to  God,  his  Father,  that  the  Father  himself  suflfers 
with  him  in  his  sin,  and  for  him,  to  save  him  from  his  sin. 
The  question  will  be  asked  how  widely  the  Buddhistic 
interpretation  of  the  universe  has  spread  in  Japan.  The 
doctrine  of  illusion  became  pretty  general.  We  may 
doubt,  however,  whether  the  rationale  of  the  philosophy 
was  very  generally  understood.  One  Sutra,  read  by  all 
Japanese  sects,  is  taught  to  all  who  would  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  essentials  of  Buddhist  doctrine.  It  is 
so  short  that  I  give  it  in  full.* 

THE    SMALLER-PRAGNA-PARAMITA-HRIDYA-SUTR.\ 

"  Adoration  to  the  Omniscient.  The  venerable  Bodhi- 
sattva  Avalokitesvara  performing  his  study  in  the  deep 
Pragna-paramita  [perfection  of  Wisdom]  thought  thus: 
There  are  the  five  Skandhas,  and  these  he  considered  as 
by  their  nature  empty  [phenomenal].  O  Sariputra,  he 
said,  form  here  is  emptiness,  and  emptiness  indeed  is  form. 
Emptiness  is  not  different  from  form,  and  form  is  not 
different  from  emptiness.  What  is  form  that  is  empti- 
ness, what  is  emptiness  that  is  form.  The  same  applies 
to  perception,  name,  conception,  and  knowledge. 

"  Here,  O  Sariputra,  all  things  have  the  character  of 
emptiness ;  they  have  no  beginning,  no  end,  they  are  fault- 
less and  not  faultless,  they  are  not  imperfect  and  not  per- 
fect. Therefore,  O  Sariputra,  in  this  emptiness  there  is 
no  form,  no  perception,  no  name,  no  concepts,  no  knowl- 
edge. No  eye,  ear,  nose,  tongue,  body.  mind.  No  form, 
sound,  smell,  taste,  touch,  objects.  .  .  There  is  no 
knowledge,  no  ignorance,  no  destruction  of  knowledge, 
no  destruction  of  ignorance,  etc.,  there  is  no  decay  and 
death,  no  destruction  of  decay  and  death  ;  there  are  not 
the  four  truths,  viz.,  that  there  is  pain,  the  origin  of 
pain,  stopping  of  pain,  and  the  path  to  it.  There  is  no 
knowledge,  no  obtaining  of  Nirvatia. 

"  A  man  who  has  approached  ihe  Pragna-paramita  of 
*  "  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  vol.  .\li.\,  jiart  ii.  p.  147. 


THE    BUDDHIST   WORLD-VIEW        403 

the  Bodhisattva  dwells  enveloped  in  consciousness.  But 
when  the  envelop  of  consciousness  has  been  annihilated, 
then  he  becomes  free  of  all  fear,  beyond  the  reach  of 
change,  enjoying  final  Nirvana.  All  Buddhas  of  the  past, 
present,  and' future,  after  approaching  the  Pragna-para- 
mita,  have  awakened  to  the  highest  perfect  knowledge. 

"  Therefore  one  ought  to  know  the  great  verse  of  the 
Pragna-paramita,  the  verse  of  the  great  wisdom,  the  un- 
surpassed verse,  the  peerless  verse,  which  appeases  all 
pain;  it  is  truth  because  it  is  not  false;  the  verse  pro- 
claimed in  the  Pragna-paramita :  '  O  wisdom,  gone,  gone, 
gone,  to  the  other  shore,  landed  at  the  other  shore,  Shava.' 

"  Thus  ends  the  heart  of  the  Pragna-paramita." 

A  study  of  this  condensed  and  widely  read  Buddhist 
Sutra  will  convince  anyone  that  the  ultimate  conceptions 
of  the  universe  and  of  the  final  reality,  are  as  described 
above.  However  popular  Buddhism  might  differ  from 
this,  it  would  be  the  belief  of  the  thoughtless  masses,  to 
whom  the  rational  and  ethical  problems  are  of  no  signifi- 
cance or  concern,  and  who  contribute  nothing  to  the  devel- 
opment of  thought  or  of  the  social  order.  Those  nobler 
and  more  earnestly  inquiring  souls  whose  energy  and 
spiritual  longing  might  have  been  used  for  the  benefit  of 
the  masses,  were  shunted  off  on  a  side  track  that  led  only 
into  the  desert  of  atomistic  individualism,  abandonment  of 
society,  ecstatic  contemplation,  and  absolute  pessimism. 
The  Buddhist  theory  of  the  universe  and  method  of 
thought  denied  all  intelligible  reality,  and  necessitated  the 
conclusion  that  the  universe  of  experience  is  neither 
rational  nor  ethical.  The  common  beliefs  of  the  unre- 
fiective  and  uninitiated  masses  in  the  ultimate  rationality 
and  morality  of  the  universe  were  felt  to  have  no  founda- 
tion either  in  religion  or  philosophy  and  were  accordingly 
pronounced  mere  illusions. 


XXXV 

COMMUNAL  AND  INDIVIDUAL  ELEMENTS  IN 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  JAPANESE  RELIGIOUS 
LIFE 

OUR  study  of  Japanese  religion  and  religious  life 
thus  far  has  been  almost,  if  not  exclusively,  from  the 
individualistic  standpoint.  An  adequate  statement, 
however,  cannot  be  made  from  this  standpoint  alone, 
for  religion  through  its  mighty  sanctions  exerts  a  power- 
ful influence  on  the  entire  communal  life.  Indeed,  the 
leading  characteristic  of  primitive  religions  is  their  com- 
munal nature.  The  science  of  religion  shows  how  late  in 
human  history  is  the  rise  of  individualistic  religions. 

In  the  present  chapter  we  propose  to  study  Japanese  re- 
ligious history  from  the  communal  standpoint.  This  will 
lead  us  to  study  her  present  religious  problem  and  the 
nature  of  the  religion  required  to  solve  it. 

The  real  nature  of  the  religious  life  of  Japan  has  been 
and  still  is  predominantly  communal.  Individualism  has 
had  a  place,  but,  as  we  have  repeatedly  seen,  only  a  minor 
place  in  forming  the  nation.  F'rom  the  communo-indi- 
vidualistic  standpoint,  in  the  study  of  Japan's  religious 
and  social  evolution,  not  only  can  we  see  clearly  that  the 
three  religions  of  Japan  are  real  religions,  but  we  can  also 
understand  the  nature  of  the  relations  of  these  three  re- 
ligions to  each  other  and  the  reasons  why  they  have  had 
such  relations.  Japanese  religious  history  and  its  main 
phenomena  become  luminous  in  the  light  of  communo- 
individualistic  social  principles. 

Shinto,  the  primitive  religion  of  Japan,  corresponded 
well  with  the  needs  of  primitive  times,  when  the  develop- 
ment of  strong  comnnmal  life  was  the  prime  problem  and 
necessity.  It  furnished  the  religious  sanctions  for  the 
social  order  in  its  customs  of  worshiping  not  only  the 
404 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE  405 

gods,  but  also  the  Emperor  and  ancestors.  It  gave  the 
highest  possible  justification  of  the  national  social  order 
in  its  deification  of  the  supreme  ruler.  Shinto  was  so 
completely  communal  in  its  nature  that  the  individual 
aspect  of  religion  was  utterly  ignored.  It  developed  no 
specific  moral  code,  no  eschatological  and  soteriological 
systems,  no  comprehensive  view  of  nature  or  of  the  gods. 
These  deficiencies,  however,  are  no  proofs  that  it  was  not 
a  religion  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term.  The  real  ques- 
tion is,  did  it  furnish  any  supra-mundane,  supra-legal, 
supra-communal  sanctions  both  for  the  conduct  of  the  in- 
dividual in  his  social  relations  and  for  the  fact  and  the 
right  of  the  social  order.  Of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
Those  who  deny  it  the  name  of  a  religion  do  so  because 
they  judge  religion  only  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  highly 
developed  individualistic  religion. 

In  view  of  this  undoubted  fact,  it  is  a  strange  com- 
mentary on  the  failure  of  Shinto  leaders  to  realize  the  real 
function  of  the  faith  they  profess  that  they  have  sought 
and  obtained  from  the  government  the  right  to  be  con- 
sidered and  classified  no  longer  as  a  religion,  but  only  as  a 
society  for  preserving  the  memories  and  shrines  of  the 
ancestors  of  the  race.  Thus  has  modern  Shinto,  so  far  as 
it  is  organized  and  has  a  mouth  with  which  to  speak,  fol- 
lowing the  abdicating  proclivities  of  the  ancient  social 
order,  excommunicated  itself  from  its  religious  heritage, 
aspiring  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  gate-keeper  of  ceme- 
teries. 

The  sources  of  the  power  of  the  Shinto  sanctions  lies  in 
the  nature  of  its  conception  of  the  universe.  Although  it 
attempted  no  interpretation  of  the  universe  as  a  whole,  it 
conceived  of  the  origin  of  the  country  and  people  of  Japan 
as  due  to  the  direct  creative  energy  of  the  gods.  Japan 
was  accordingly  conceived  as  a  divine  land  and  the  people 
a  divine  people.  The  Emperor  was  thought  to  have  de- 
scended in  direct  line  from  the  gods  and  thus  to  be  a 
visible  representative  of  the  gods  to  the  people,  and  to  pos- 
sess divine  power  and  authority  with  which  to  rule  the 
people.  Whenever  Japanese  came  into  contact  with  for- 
eign peoples,  it  was  natural  to  consider  them  outside  of 
the   divine   providence,    aliens,    whose   presence    in    the 


4o6       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

divine  land  was  more  or  less  of  a  pollution.  This  world- 
view  was  well  calculated  to  develop  a  spirit  of  submissive 
obedience  and  loyal  adherence  to  the  hereditary  rulers  of 
the  land,  and  of  fierce  anta^i^onism  to  foreigners.  This 
view  constituted  the  moral  foundation  for  the  social  order, 
the  intellectual  framework  within  which  the  state  devel- 
oped. Paternal  feudalism  was  the  natural,  if  not  the 
necessary,  accompaniment  of  this  world-view.  Even  to 
this  day  the  scholars  of  the  land  see  no  other  ground  on 
which  to  found  Imperial  authority,  no  other  basis  for 
ethics  and  religion,  than  the  divine  descent  of  the 
Emperor.* 

The  Shinto  world-view,  conceiving  of  men  as  direct  off- 
spring of  the  gods,  has  in  it  potentially  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  nature  of  all  men,  and  their  consequent  infinite 
worth.  Shinto  never  developed  this  truth,  however.  It 
did  not  discover  the  momentous  implications  of  its  view. 
Failing  to  discover  them,  it  failed  to  introduce  into  the 
social  order  that  moral  inspiration,  that  social  leaven 
which  would  have  gradually  produced  the  individualistic 
social  order. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  either  in  ancient  or  modern 
times  to  square  this  Shinto  world-view  with  advancing 
knowledge  of  the  world,  particularly  with  the  modern 
scientific  conception  of  the  universe.  Anthropology, 
ethnology,  and  the  doctrine  of  evolution  both  cosmic  and 
human,  are  all  destructive  of  the  primitive  Shinto  world- 
view.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  show,  however,  that  in 
this  world-view  exists  a  profound  element  of  truth.  The 
Shinto  world-conception  needs  to  be  expanded  to  take  the 
universe  and  all  races  of  men  into  its  view,  and  to  see  that 
Japan  is  not  alone  the  object  of  divine  solicitude,  but  that 
all  races  likewise  owe  their  origin  to  that  same  divine 
power,  and  that  even  though  the  Emperor  is  not  more 
directly  the  offspring  of  the  gods  than  are  all  men,  yet  in 
the  providence  of  Him  who  ruleth  the  affairs  of  men.  the 
Emperor  is  in  fact  the  visible  representative  of  authority 
and  power  for  the  people  over  whom  he  reigns.  With  this 
expansion  and  the  consequences  that  flow  from  it.  the 
world-view  that  has  cradled  Old  Japan  will  come  into 
*  Cf.  chapters  xiii.  and  xxxi. 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE  407 

accord  with  the  scientific  Christian  world-view,  and  be- 
come fitted  to  be  the  foundation  for  the  new  and  individ- 
uaHstic  social  order,  now  arising-  in  Japan,  granting  full 
liberty  of  thought  and  action,  knowing  that  only  so  can 
truth  come  out  of  error,  and  assured  that  truth  is  the  only 
ground  of  permanent  welfare. 

Throughout  the  centuries  including  the  present  era  of 
Meiji,  it  is  the  Shinto  religion  that  has  provided  and  that 
still  provides  religious  sanctions  for  the  social  order — 
even  for  the  new  social  order  that  has  come  in  from  the  f 
West.  It  is  the  belief  of  the  people  in  the  divine  descent  yj 
of  the  Emperor,  and  his  consequent  divine  right,  that  to- 
day unifies  the  nation  and  causes  it  to  accept  so  readily 
the  new  social  order;  desired  by  him,  they  raise  no  ques- 
tions, make  no  opposition,  even  though  in  some  respects 
it  brings  them  trouble  and  anxiety. 

Our  study  of  Buddhism  has  brought  to  light  its  ex- 
tremely individualistic  nature, and  its  lack  of  asocial  ideal. 
Its  world-view  we  have  sufficiently  examined  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter.  We  are  told  that  when  Buddhism  came 
to  Japan  it  made  little  headway  until  it  adopted  the  Shinto 
deities  into  its  theogony.  What  does  this  mean?  That 
only  on  condition  of  accepting  the  Shinto  sanctions  for  the  « 
communal  order  of  society  was  it  able  to  commend  itself^ 
to  the  people  at  large.  And  Buddhism  had  no  difficulty 
in  fulfilling  this  condition,  because  it  had  no  ideal  order 
of  society  to  present  and  no  religious  sanctions  for  any 
kind  of  social  order ;  in  this  respect  Buddhism  had  no 
ground  for  conflict  with  Shinto.  Shinto  had  the  field  to 
itself ;  and  Buddhism  was  perfectly  at  liberty  to  adopt,  or 
at  least  to  allow,  any  social  order  that  might  present  itself. 
Furthermore,  by  its  doctrines  of  incarnation  and  transmi- 
gration, according  to  which  noble  souls  might  appear  and 
reappear  in  different  worlds  and  different  lands,  Bud- 
dhism could  identify  Shinto  deities  with  its  own  deities  of 
Hindu  origin,  asserting  their  pre-incarnation.  Having 
accepted  the  Shinto  deities,  ideals,  and  sanctions  for  the 
social  order,  Buddhism  became  not  only  tolerable  to  the 
people,  but  also  exceedingly  popular. 

The   Shinto-Buddhistic  was  in  truth   a  new  religion, 
each  of  the  old  religions  supplying  an  essential  element. 


4o8       EVOLUTION    OF    THE    JAPANESE 

One  real  reason,  beside  its  accommodation  to  Shintoism, 
why  Buddhism  was  so  popular  was  that  it  brought  an  in- 
dispensable element  into  the  national  life.  For  the  first 
time  emphasis  began  to  be  laid  on  the  individual.  Intro- 
spection and  deliberate  meditation  were  brought  into  play. 
Arts  demanding  individual  skill  were  fostered.  A 
gorgeous  ritual,  elaborate  architecture,  complex  religious 
organism,  letters  and  literature,  all  gave  play  to  individual 
activity  and  development  whether  in  manual,  in  mental, 
or  in  aesthetic  lines.  The  hitherto  cramped  and  primitive 
life  of  the  Japanese  responded  to  these  appeals  and  oppor- 
tunities witli  profound  joy.  The  upper  classes  especially 
felt  themselves  growing  in  richness  and  fullness  of  life. 
They  felt  the  stimulus  in  many  directions.  The  reason, 
then,  why  Buddhism  flourished  so  mightily,  and  at  the 
same  time  caused  the  nation  to  bloom,  was  because  it 
helped  develdj)  the  individual.  The  reason,  on  the  other 
hand,  why  it  failed  to  carry  the  nation  on  from  its  first 
bloom  into  full  fruitage  was  because  it  failed  to  develop 
individualism  in  the  social  order.  Its  religious  indi- 
vidualism was,  as  we  have  seen,  in  reality  defective.  It 
was  abstract  and  one-sided.  It  did  not  discover  the 
whole  of  the  individual.  It  did  not  know  anything  of 
personality,  either  human  or  divine.  It  accordingly  could 
not  recognize  the  individual's  worth,  but  only  his  separate- 
ness  and  his  weakness.  It  taught  an  abstract  impover- 
ished idea  of  self,  and  made,  as  the  whole  aim  of  the  sal- 
vation it  offered,  the  final  annihilation  of  all  separatencss 
of  this  individual  self.  We  can  now  see  that  its  indi- 
vidualism was  essentially  defective  in  that  it  poured  con- 
tempt on  the  self,  and  that  if  its  individualizing  salvation 
were  consistentl}-  carried  out,  it  was  not  only  no  help  to 
the  social  order,  but  a  positive  injury  to  it.  Its  indi- 
vidualism was  of  a  nature  which  coukl  not  become  an  in- 
tegral part  of  any  social  order. 

This  character  led  to  another  inevitable  difficulty. 
Although  Buddhism  ostensibly  adopted  Shinto  deities  and 
the  Shintoisanctions  for  the  social  order.it  could  not  whole- 
heartedly accept  the  sanctions  nor  take  the  deities  into  full 
and  legitimate  partnership.  It  found  no  place  in  its  circle 
of  doctrine  to  teach  tlie  imi)ortanl   tenets  of  Shintoism. 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS   LIFE  409 

It  left  them  to  survive  or  perish  as  chance  would  have  it. 
In  proportion  as  Buddhism  absorbed  the  life  and  love  of 
the  people,  Shinto  fell  into  decay  and  with  it  its  sanctions. 
Then  came  the  centuries  of  civil  war  during  which  Im- 
perial power  and  authority  sank  to  a  minimum,  and 
Japan's  ignominy  and  disorder  reached  their  maximum. 
What  the  land  now  needed  was  the  re-introduction,  first, 
of  social  order,  even  though  it  must  be  by  the  hand  of  a 
dictator,  and  second,  the  development  of  religious  sanc- 
tions for  the  order  that  should  be  established.  The  first 
was  secured  by  those  three  great  generals  of  Japan,  Oda 
Nobunaga,  the  Taiko  Hideyoshi,  and  Tokugawa  leyasu. 
"  The  first  conceived  the  idea  of  centralizing  all  the  au- 
thority of  the  state  in  a  single  person  ;  the  second,  who  has 
been  called  the  Napoleon  of  Japan,  actually  put  the  idea 
into  practice,"  but  died  before  consolidating  his  work ;  the 
third,  by  his  unsurpassed  skill  as  a  diplomat  and  admin- 
istrator,' carried  the  idea  completely  out,  arranging  the 
details  of  the  new  order  so  that,  without  special  military 
genius  or  power  on  the  part  of  his  successors,  the  order 
maintained  itself  for  250  years. 

Yet  it  is  doubtful  if  this  long  maintenance  of  the  social 
order  introduced  by  leyasu  would  have  been  possible  had 
he  not  found  ready  to  hand  a  system  of  essentially  religious 
sanctions  for  the  social  order  he  had  established  by  force. 
Confucianism  had  lain  for  a  thousand  years  a  dormant 
germ,  receiving  some  study  from  learned  men,  but  having 
no  special  relation  to  the  education  of  the  day  or  to  the 
political  problems  that  became  each  century  more  press- 
ing. In  the  Confucian  doctrines  of  loyalty  to  ruler  and 
piety  to  parents,  a  doctrine  sanctioned  by  Heaven  and  by 
the  customs  of  all  the  ancients,  leyasu,  with  the  insight 
of  a  master  mind,  found  just  the  sanctions  he  desired. 
He  had  the  Confucian  classics  printed — it  is  said  for  the 
first  time  in  Japan — "  and  the  whole  intellect  of  the  coun- 
try became  molded  by  Confucian  ideas."  The  classics, 
edited  with  diacritical  marks  for  Japanese  students, 
"  formed  the  chief  vehicle  of  every  boy's  education." 
These  were  interpreted  by  learned  Chinese  commentators. 
The  intelligence  of  the  land  drank  of  this  stream,  as  the 
European  mind  refreshed  itself  with  the  classic  waters  of 


410       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  Renaissance.  The  Japanese  were  weary  of  Bud- 
dhistic pueriHties  and  transcendental  doctrines  that  led 
nowhere.  They  demanded  sanctions  for  the  moral  life 
and  the  social  order;  in  response  to  this  need  Buddhism 
gave  them  Nirvana — absolute  mental  and  moral  vacuity. 
Confucianism  gave  them  principles  whose  working  and 
whose  results  they  could  see  and  understand.  Its  sanc- 
tions appealed  both  to  the  imagination  and  to  the  reason, 
'antiquity  and  learning  and  piety  being  all  in  their  favor. 
The  sanctions  were  also  seen  to  be  wholly  independent  of 
;pucrile  superstitions  and  foolish  fears.  The  Confucian 
ideals  and  sanctions,  moreover,  coincided  with  the  essen- 
tial elements  of  the  old  Shinto  world-view  and  sanctions. 
In  a  true  sense,  the  doctrines  of  Confucius  were  but  the 
elaborated  and  succinctly  stated  implications  of  their 
primitive  faith.  Confucianism,  therefore,  swept  the  land. 
It  was  accepted  as  the  groundwork  and  authority  for  the 
most  flourishing  feudal  order  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
Japan  bloomed  again.* 

This  difference,  however,  is  to  be  noted  between  the 
Shinto  ideal  social  order  and  the  Confucian,  or  rather  that 
development  of  Confucian  ethics  and  civics  which  arose 
during  the  Tokugawa  Shogunate ;  Shinto  appears  to  have 
been,  properly  speaking,  nationalistic,  while  feudal  Con- 
fucianism was  tribal.  Although  in  Confucian  theory  the 
supreme  loyalty  may  have  been  due  the  Emperor,  in  point 
of  fact  it  was  shown  to  the  local  daimyo.  Confucian 
ethics  was  communal  and  might  easily  have  turned  in  the 
direction  of  national  communalism ;  it  would  then  have 
coincided  completely  with  Shinto  in  this  respect.  But  for 
various  reasons  it  did  not  so  turn,  but  developed  an  in- 
tensely local,  a  tribal  communalism.  and  pushed  loyalty  to 
the  Emperor  as  a  vital  reality  entirely  into  the  background. 
This  was  one  of  the  defects  of  feudal  Confucianism  which 

*  It  is  not  stran52:e  that  in  all  the  centers  of  this  new  learning: 
Confucius  was  deified  and  worshiped.  In  connection  with 
many  schools  established  for  the  study  of  his  works,  temples 
were  built  to  his  honor,  in  which  his  statue  alone  was 
placed,  before  which  a  stately  reliijious  service  was  performed 
at  retjular  intervals.  Thus  did  Confucianism  become  a  livinc: 
and  vitalizinjj,  although,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  an  incomplete 
religion. 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE  411 

finally  led  to  its  own  overthrow.  Shinto,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  long  been  pushed  aside  by  Buddhism  and  was 
practically  forgotten  by  the  people.  The  zeal  for  Con- 
fucian doctrine  brought,  therefore,  no  immediate  revival  to 
the  Shinto  cultus,  although  it  did  revive  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  the  old  communal  religion.  We  might  say  that 
the  old  religion  was  revived  under  a  new  name ;  having  a 
new  name  and  a  new  body,  the  real  and  vital  connection 
between  the  two  was  not  recognized.  We  thus  discern 
how  the  religious  history  of  Japan  was  not  a  series  of 
cataclysms  or  of  disconnected  leaps  in  the  dark,  but  an 
orderly  development,  one  step  naturally  following  the 
next,  as  the  sun  follows  the  dawn.  The  different  stages 
of  Japan's  religious  progress  have  received  different 
names,  because  due  to  specific  stimuli  brought  from 
abroad ;  the  religious  life  itself,  however,  has  been  a  con- 
tinuous development. 

Another  difference  between  Shinto  and  Confucianism 
as  it  existed  in  Japan  should  not  escape  our  attention, 
namely,  in  regard  to  their  respective  world-views.  Shinto 
was  confessedly  a  religion ;  it  frankly  believed  in  gods, 
whom  it  worshiped  and  on  whose  help  it  relied.  Con- 
fucianism, or  to  use  the  Japanese  name,  Bushido,  was  con- 
fessedly agnostic.  It  did  not  assume  to  understand  the 
universe,  as  Buddhism  assumed.  Nor  did  it  admit  the 
practical  existence  of  gods  or  their  power  in  this  world,  as 
Shinto  believed.  It  maintained  that,  "  if  only  the  heart 
follows  the  way  of  truth,  the  gods  will  protect  one  even 
though  he  does  not  pray."  It  laid  stress  on  practical 
moralities,  regardless  of  their  philosophical  presumptions, 
into  which  it  would  not  probe.  When  pressed  it  would 
ascribe  all  to  "  Heaven,"  and,  as  we  have  seen,  it  had 
many  implications  that  would  lead  the  inquiring  mind  to 
a  belief  in  the  personal  nature  of  "  Heaven."  Had  it  de- 
veloped these  implications,  Bushido  would  have  become  a 
genuine  religion.  It  was  indeed  a  system  of  ethics 
touched  with  emotion,  it  was  religious,  but  it  failed  to  be- 
come the  religion  it  might  have  become  because  it  insisted 
on  its  agnosticism  and  refused  to  worship  the  highest  and 
best  it  knew. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  ideals  and  sanctions 


412        EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

of  Confucianism  produced  effects  which  proved  its  ruin. 
They  did  this  in  two  ways ;  first,  by  developing  the  pro- 
longed peace  necessary  for  a  high  grade  of  schohirship 
which,  turning  its  attention  to  ancient  history,  discovered 
that  the  Shogunate  was  assuming  powers  not  in  accord 
with  the  primitive  practice  nor  in  accord  with  the  theory 
of  the  divine  descent  of  the  Imperial  house.  Imperialistic 
patriots  arose,  whose  aim  was  to  overthrow^  the  Shogunate 
and  restore  the  Emperor.  They  felt  that,  doing  this,  they 
were  right;  that  is  to  say,  they  became  inspired  by  the 
Shintosanctions  for  a  national  life.  They  thus  discoverd 
the  defcKTt  of  the  disjointed  feudal  system  sanctioned  by 
feudal  Confucianism.  The  second  cause  of  its  undoing 
grew  out  of  the  first.  The  scholarship  which  led  the 
patriots  against  the  usurper  in  political  life  led  them  also 
against  all  foreign  innovations  such  as  Buddhism  and 
Confucianism,  which  they  scorned  as  modern  and  anti- 
imperial.  The  Shinto  cultus  thus  received  a  powerful  re- 
vival. With  the  overthrow  of  the  Shogunate  in  1868 
Confucianism  naturally  went  with  it,  and  for  a  time 
Shinto  was  the  state  religion.  But  its  poverty  in  every 
line,  except  the  communal  sanctions,  caused  it  in  a  short 
time  to  lose  its  place. 

The  two  causes  just  assigned  for  the  fall  of  Bushido. 
however,  could  hardly  have  wrought  its  ruin  had  it  been 
more  than  a  utilitarian  and  agnostic  system  of  morality, 
calculated  to  maintain  the  social  ascendency  of  a  small 
fraction  of  the  nation.  As  a  religion,  Bushido  would 
have  secured  a  conservative  power  enabling  it  to  survive, 
by  a(lai)ting  itself  to  a  changed  social  order.  As  it  was, 
Bushido  was  snuffed  out  by  a  single  breath  of  the  breeze 
that  began  to  blow  from  foreign  lands.  As  an  ethical 
system  it  has  conferred  a  blessing  on  Japan  that  should 
never  be  forgotten.  But  its  identification  with  a  class 
and  a  clan  social  order  rendered  it  too  narrow  for  the 
national  and  international  life  into  which  the  nation  was 
forced  by  circumstances  beyond  its  control,  and  its  agnos- 
tic utilitarianism  did  not  provide  it  with  sufiicient  moral 
power  to  cope  with  the  problems  of  the  new  individualistic 
age  that  had  suddenly  burst  U]'»nn  it.  In  all  Japan  there 
remains  to  the  present  day  only  one  of  those  old  Con- 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE  413 

fucian  schools  with  its  temple  to  Confucius.  All  the  rest 
have  fallen  into  ruins  or  have  been  used  for  other  pur- 
poses, while  the  gold-covered  statues  of  the  once  deified 
teacher  have  been  sold  to  curio-dealers  or  for  their  bullion 
value.  In  the  worship  of  Confucius,  Bushido  almost  be- 
came a  religion,  but  it  worshiped  the  teacher  instead  of 
the  Creator,  maintaining  its  agnosticism  as  to  the  Creator, 
as  to  "  Heaven,"  to  the  end,  and  thus  lapsed  from  the 
path  of  religious  evolution. 

Ihis  brings  us  down  to  modern  times — into  the  seven- 
ties. Already  in  the  sixties  Japan  had  discovered  herself 
in  a  totally  new  environment.  She  found  that  foreign 
nations  had  made  great  progress  in  every  direction  since 
she  shut  them  out  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before. 
She  discovered  her  helplessness,  she  discovered,  too,  that 
the  social  order  of  Western  peoples  was  totally  distinct 
from  hers.  These  discoveries  served  to  break  down  all 
the  remaining  sanctions  for  her  particular  type  of  social 
order — Confucianistic  feudalism.  The  whole  nation  was 
eager  to  know  the  political  systems  of  the  West.  So  long 
as  the  Shinto  ideal  of  nationalism  was  not  interfered  with, 
the  nation  was  free  to  adopt  any  new  social  order. 
Japan's  political  and  commercial  intercourse  being  with 
England  and  America,  the  social  order  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  had  the  greatest  influence  on  the  Japanese  mind. 
Japan  accordingly  has  become  predominantly  Anglo- 
Saxon  in  its  social  ideas.  Much  has  been  made  of  the 
fact  that  the  new  social  order  has  come  in  so  easily ;  that 
the  people  have  gained  rights  without  fighting  for  them ; 
and  this  has  been  attributed  to  the  peculiarity  of  Japanese 
human  nature.  This  is  an  error.  The  real  reason  for 
the  ease  with  which  the  individualistic  Anglo-Saxon  social 
order  has  been  introduced  has  been  the  collapse  of  the 
sanctions  for  the  Confucian  order.  No  one  had  any 
ground  of  duty  on  which  to  stand  and  fight.  The  na- 
tional mind  was  open  to  any  newcomer  that  might  have 
appeared.  I  am  referring,  of  course,  to  the  thinking 
classes.  All  the  rest,  accustomed  to  submissive  obedience,' 
never  thought  of  any  other  course  than  to  accept  the  will 
of  superiors. 

Furthermore,  the  new  social  order  in  one  important  re- 


414        EVOLUTION    OP^    THE    JAPANESE 

spect  fell  in  with  and  helped  to  re-establish  the  old  Shinto^ 
ideal,  that,  namely,  of  nationalism.  In  the  treaty  negotia- 
tions, the  West  would  deal  with  no  intermediaries,  onlv 
with  the  responsible  national  head.  Western  ideals,  too, 
demanded  a  strong  national  unity.  In  this  respect,  then, 
the  foreign  ideals  and  foreign  social  order  were  powerful 
influences  in  building  up  the  new  patriotism,  in  re-enforc- 
ing the  old  Shinto  social  sanctions. 

Thus  has  Japan  come  to  the  parting  of  the  ways.  What 
Japan  needs  to-day  is  a  religion  satisfying  the  intellect  as 
to  its  world-view,  and  thus  justifying  the  sanctions  it  holds 
out.  These  must  be  neither  exclusively  communal,  like 
those  of  Shinto,  nor  exclusively  individual,  like  those  of 
Buddhism.  While  maintaining  at  their  full  value  the 
sanctions  for  the  social  life,  it  must  add  thereto  the  sanc- 
tions for  the  individual.  It  must  not  look  upon  the  indi- 
vidual as  a  being  whose  salvation  depends  on  his  being 
isolated  from,  taken  out  of  the  community,  as  Buddhism 
did  and  does,  nor  yet  as  a  mere  fraction  of  the  community, 
as  Confucianism  did,  but  as  a  complete,  imperishable  unit 
of  infinite  worth,  necessarily  living  a  double  life,  partly  in- 
separable from  the  social  order  and  partly  superior  to  it. 
This  religion  must  provide  not  only  sanctions,  but  ideals, 
for  a  perfect  social  order  in  which,  while  the  most  complex 
organization  of  society  shall  be  possible,  the  freedom  and 
the  high  development  of  the  individual's  personality  shall 
also  be  secured. 

The  fulfillment  of  such  conditions  would  at  first  thought 
seem  to  be  impossible.  How  can  a  religion  give  sanctions 
which  at  the  very  time  that  they  authorize  the  fullest 
development  and  organization  of  society,  apparently  mak- 
ing society  its  chief  end.  also  assume  the  f idlest  lib- 
erty and  development  of  the  individual,  making  him  and 
his  salvation  its  chief  end?  Are  not  these  ends  incom- 
patible? What  has  been  said  already  along  this  general 
line  of  thought  has  prepared  us  to  see  that  they  are  not. 
The  great,  though  unconscious,  need  of  the  ages,  and  the 
unconscious  efifort  of  all  religious  evolution  has  been  the 
development  of  just  such  a  religion.  As  the  "  cake  "  of 
social  custom  was  at  first  the  great  need  for.  and  after- 
wards the  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of,  social  evolution,  so 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE  4^5 

the  sanctions  of  a  communal  religion  were  at  first  the 
great  need  for,  and  afterwards  the  great  obstacle  in  the 
way  of,  religious  evolution  and  of  personal  development. 
Through  its  sanctions  religion  is  the  most  powerful  of  all 
the  factors  of  the  higher  human  evolution,  either  helping 
it  onward  or  holding  it  back. 

Has,  then,  any  religion  secured  such  a  dual  development 
as  we  have  just  seen  to  be  necessary?  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  one  and  only  one  has  done  so,  Christianity.  This 
religion  clearly  attains  and  maintains  the  apparently  im- 
possible combination  of  individualism  and  communalism 
by  the  nature  of  its  conception  of  the  method  of  individual 
salvation.  Its  communalism  is  guaranteed  by,  because 
it  rests  on,  its  individualism.  At  the  very  moment  that  it 
pronounces  the  individual  of  inestimable  worth, — a  son  of 
God, — it  commands  him  to  show  that  sonship  by  loving  all 
God's  other  sons,  and  by  serving  them  to  the  extent  of 
self-sacrifice,  and  of  death  if  need  be.  Its  communalism 
is  thus  inseparable  from  its  individualism  and  its  indi- 
vidualism from  its  comnumalism. 

Christian  individualism  embraces  and  includes 
thoroughgoing  communalism.  True  and  full  Christians 
are  the  most  devoted  patriots.  As  the  acorn  sends  forth 
far-reaching  roots  into  the  soil  for  moisture  and  nourish- 
ment, and  a  mighty  trunk  and  spreading  branches  upward 
for  air  and  sunlight,  so  the  seed  of  Christian  life  develops 
in  two  directions,  individualism  as  the  root  and  commun- 
alism as  the  beautiful  tree.  They  are  not  contradictory, 
but  supplementary  principles.  While  his  own  final  gain 
is  a  real  aim  of  the  individual,  it  is  only  a  part  of  his  aim ; 
he  also  desires  and  labors  for  the  gain  of  all ;  and  even  the 
individual  gain,  he  well  knows,  can  be  secured  only 
through  the  communal  principle,  through  service  to  his 
fellow-men.  His  own  welfare,  whether  temporal  or  eter- 
nal, is  inseparably  bound  up  with  that  of  his  fellows. 

The  Christian  religion  finds  the  sanctions  for  any  and 
every  social  order  that  history  knows,  in  the  fact  that  all 
physical  and  social  laws  and  organisms  are  part  of  the 
divine  plan.  Because  any  particular  social  order  is  the 
association  of  imperfect  men  and  women,  it  must  be  more 
or  less  imperfect.     But  the  Christian,  even  while  he  is 


4i6       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

seeking  to  reform  the  social  order  and  to  bring  it  up  to 
his  ideal,  must  be  loyal  to  it.  And  for  this  loyalty  to  fel- 
low-men and  to  God,  the  highest  conceivable  sanctions  are 
held  out,  namely,  an  endless  and  infinite  life  of  conscious, 
joyous  fellowship  with  souls  made  perfect  in  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  and  with  God  himself. 

A  comprehensive  study,  therefore,  of  the  real  nature 
and  the  true  function  of  religion  in  relation  to  man's  de- 
velopment, whether  individual  or  communal,  shows  that 
Christianity  fulfills  the  conditions.  A  comparative  study 
would  show  that,  of  all  the  existing  religions,  Christianity 
alone  does  this.  It  alone  combines  in  perfect  i)roportion 
the  individual  and  the  communal  elements,  and  the 
requisite  sanctions. 

An  expansion  of  communal  religion  is  taking  place  in 
modern  times.  The  community  now  arising  is  interna- 
tional in  scope,  interracial  and  universal  in  character. 
Cultivated  men  and  women  the  world  around  are  begin- 
ning to  talk  of  national  rights  and  national  duties.  Eu- 
rope is  thought  to  be  justified  in  suppressing  the  slave 
trade  and  its  accompanying  horrors  in  Africa,  and  con- 
demned for  not  preventing  the  Turk  from  carrying  on  his 
wholesale  slaughter  of  innocent  Armenians.  The  Span- 
iard is  despised  and  condemned  for  his  prolonged  inhu- 
manities in  Cuba  and  the  Philippines,  and  the  American 
is  approved  in  warring  for  humanity  and  justified  in 'in- 
terfering with  Spain's  sovereignty.  The  conscience  of 
the  world  is  beginning  to  discover  that  no  nation,  though 
sovereign,  has  an  absolute  right  over  its  people.  Right 
is  only  measured  by  righteousness.  International  right- 
eousness, duty  and  rights,  regardless  of  military  power, 
are  coming  to  the  forefront  of  the  thinking  of  advanced 
nations. 

Looked  at  closely,  and  studied  in  its  implications,  what 
is  this  but  a  developing  form  of  communal  religion  ?  No 
nation  is  conceived  as  existing  apart ;  each  exists  as  but 
one  fraction  of  the  world-wide  community ;  in  its  rela- 
tions it  has  both  rights  and  duties.  Does  this  not  mean 
that  appeal  has  been  made  from  the  communal  sanctions 
of  might  to  the  supra-comnumal  sanctions  of  right  ?  W'c 
do  not  simply  ask  what  do  other  nations  think  of  this  or 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE  417 

that  national  act,  but  what  is  right,  in  view  of  the  whole 
order  of  the  nature  which  has  brought  man  into  being  and 
set  him  in  famiHes  and  nations.  In  other  words,  national 
rights  and  duties  are  felt  to  flow  from  the  supra-mundane 
source,  God  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  and  all  that 
in  them  is.  The  sanctions  for  national  rights  and  duties 
are  religious  sanctions  and  rest  on  a  religious  world-view. 

Now  the  point  of  interest  for  us  is  the  fact  that  Japan 
has  entered  into  this  universal  community  and  is  feeling 
the  sanctions  of  this  universal  communal  religion.  The 
international  rights  and  duties  of  Japan  are  a  theme  of 
frequent  discourse  and  conversation.  Japan  stoutly  main- 
tained that  the  war  with  China  was  a  ''  gi-sen,"  a  right- 
eous war,  waged  primarily  for  the  sake  of  Korea.  Many 
a  Japanese  waxes  indignant  over  the  cruelty  of  the  Turk, 
the  savage  barbarity  of  the  Spaniard,  and  the  impotence 
and  supineness  of  England  and  Europe.  I  have  already 
spoken  of  the  young  man  who  became  so  indignant  at 
England's  compelling  China  to  take  Indian  opium,  that 
he  proposed  to  go  to  England  to  preach  an  anti-opium 
crusade.  Japan  is  beginning  to  enter  into  the  larger  com- 
munal life  of  the  world,  although,  of  course,  she  has  as 
yet  little  perception  of  its  varied  implications. 

Many  a  student  of  New  Japan  perceives  that  she  is 
abandoning  her  old  religious  conceptions,  and  that  many 
moral  and  social  evils  are  entering  the  land,  who  yet  does 
not  see  that  the  wide  acceptance  of  some  new  religion  by 
the  people  is  important  for  the  maintenance  of  the  nation. 
Some  earnest  Japanese  thinkers  are  beginning  to  realize 
that  religion  is,  indeed,  needful  to  steady  the  national 
life,  but  they  fail  to  see  that  Christianity  alone  fulfills  the 
condition.  Many  are  saying  that  a  religion  scientifically 
constructed  must  be  manufactured   especially  for  Japan. 

The  reason  why  individualistic  religion  takes  such  an 
important  part  in  the  higher  evolution  of  man  is,  in  a 
word,  because  the  religious  sanctions  are  so  much  more 
powerful  than  all  others,  either  legal  or  social.  For  the 
legal  sanctions  are  chiefly  negative ;  they  are  also  partial 
and  uncertain,  and  easily  evaded  by  the  selfish  individual. 
The  social  sanctions,  too,  are  often  far  from  just  or  im- 
partial or  wise.     Furthermore,  the  rise  of  individualism 


4i8       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

in  the  social  order  secures  privacy  for  the  individual,  and 
so  far  forth  removes  him  from  the  restraints  and  stimuli 
of  the  social  sanctions.  It  is  the  religious  sanctions  alone 
that  follow  the  man  in  every  waking  moment.  Not  one 
of  all  his  acts  escapes  the  eye  of  the  religious  judgment. 
He  is  his  own  judge,  and  he  cannot  escape  bearing  witness 
against  himself. 

Now,  it  is  manifest  that  where  superior  beings  and 
man's  relation  to  these  and  the  corresponding  religious 
sanctions  are  defectively  conceived,  as,  for  instance,  quite 
apart  either  from  the  individual  or  the  communal  life, 
they  are  valueless  to  the  higher  evolution  of  man  and  have 
little  interest  for  the  student  of  social  evolution.  In  pro- 
portion, however,  as  man  advances  in  intellectual  grasp 
of  religious  truths  and  in  susceptibility  to  the  moral  ideas 
and  religious  sanctions  they  provide,  conceiving  of  moral- 
ity and  religion  as  inseparable  parts  of  the  same  system, 
the  more  powerfully  does  religion  enter  into  and  promote 
man's  higher  evolution.  An  individualistic  social  order 
demands  the  religious  sanctions  more  imperatively  than 
a  communal  social  order ;  for,  in  proportion  as  it  is  in- 
dividualistic, the  social  order  is  weak  in  compelling, 
through  the  legal  and  social  sanctions  alone,  the  communal 
or  altruistic  activity  of  the  individual.  Altruistic  spirit 
and  action,  however,  are  essential  to  the  maintenance  even 
of  that  individualistic  order.  The  more  highly  society 
develops,  therefore,  the  more  religious  must  each  member 
of  the  society  become. 

The  same  truth  may  be  stated  from  another  standpoint. 
The  higher  man  develops,  the  more  impatient  he  becomes 
with  illogical  reasonings  and  defective  conceptions ;  he 
thus  becomes  increasingly  skeptical  in  regard  to  current 
traditional  religions  with  their  crude,  primitive  ideas ;  he 
is  accordingly  increasingly  freed  from  the  restraints  they 
impose.  But  unless  he  finds  some  new  religious  sanctions 
for  the  comnumal  life,  for  social  conduct,  and  for  the  in- 
dividual life, — ideals  and  sanctions  that  command  his  as- 
sent and  direct  his  life, — he  will  drop  back  into  a  thorough- 
going atomic,  individualistic,  selfish  life,  which  can  be 
only  a  hindrance  to  the  higher  development  both  of  society 
and  of  the  individual.     In  order  that  men  advancing  in 


JAPANESE   RELIGIOUS   LIFE  419 

intellectual  ability  may  remain  useful  members  of  society, 
they  must  remain  subject  to  those  ideals  and  sanctions 
which  will  actually  secure  social  conduct.  While  disre- 
garding the  chaff  of  primitive  religious  superstitions  and 
ceremonials  man  must  retain  the  wheat ;  he  must  feel  the 
force  of  the  religious  spirit  in  a  deeper  and  profounder, 
because  more  personal  way  than  did  his  ancestors.  In- 
creasing intellectual  power  and  knowledge  must  be 
balanced  by  increasing  individual  experience  of  the  re- 
ligious motives  and  spirit.  This  is  the  reason  why  each 
advancing  age  should  study  afresh  the  whole  religious 
problem,  and  state  in  the  terms  of  its  own  experience  the 
prominent  and  permanent  religious  truths  of  all  the  ages 
and  the  sanctions  that  flow  from  them.  Hence  it  is  that 
a  religion  only  traditional  and  ceremonial  is  quite  unfitted 
for  a  developing  life. 

Japan  is  no  exception  to  the  general  laws  of  human 
evolution.  As  her  intellectual  abilities  increase,  the  forms 
of  her  old  religious  life  will  become  increasingly  unac- 
ceptable to  the  people  at  large.  If,  in  rejecting  the  obso- 
lete forms  of  religious  thought,  she  rejects  religion  and  its 
sanctions  altogether,  atomistic  individualism  can  be  the 
only  result,  and  with  it  wide  moral  corruption  will  eat  out 
the  vitality  of  the  national  life. 

That  Christianity  alone,  of  all  the  religions  of  the  world, 
fulfills  the  conditions  will  not  need  many  words  to  prove. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  Christianity  alone  has  succeeded  in 
surviving  the  criticism  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In 
Christendom,  all  religions  but  Christianity  have  perished. 
This  is  a  mere  matter  of  fact.  As  for  the  reason,  Chris- 
tianity alone  gives  complete  intellectually  satisfactory 
sanctions  for  both  the  communal  and  the  individualistic 
principles  of  social  progress.  Christianity,  as  we  have 
sufficiently  shown,  has  both  principles  not  unrelated  to 
each  other,  but  vitally  interrelated.  For  these  reasons  it 
is  safe  to  maintain  not  only  that  Japan  needs  to  find  a  new 
religion,  but  that  the  religion  must  be  Christianity  in  sub- 
stance, whatever  be  the  name  given  it. 

The  Japanese  have  been  described  as  essentially  irre- 
ligious in  nature.  We  have  seen  how  defective  such  a 
description  is.     But  have  we  not  now  traced  one  root  of 


420       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

this  seeming  characteristic  of  New  Japan?  The  old  re- 
ligious conceptions  have  been  largely  outgrown  by  the 
educated.  They  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  old 
religious  forms  constitute  the  whole  of  religion,  and  that 
consequently  they  are  unworthy  of  attention.  The  spirit 
of  New  Japan  is  indifferent  to  religion ;  but  this  is  not  due 
to  an  inherently  non-religious  or  irreligious  nature,  but 
to  the  empty  externalism  and  shallow  puerilities  of  the 
only  religions  they  know.  How  can  they  be  zealous  for 
them  or  recognize  any  authority  in  them?  Those  few 
Japanese  who  have  come  within  the  influence  of  the  larger 
conception  of  religion  brought  to  Japan  by  Christianity 
are  showing  a  religious  zeal  and  power  supporting  the 
contention  that  the  generally  asserted  lack  of  a  religious 
nature  is  only  apparent  and  temporary.  Preaching  the 
right  set  of  ideas,  those  which  appeal  to  the  national  sense 
of  communal  needs,  by  supplying  the  demand  for  sanc- 
tions for  the  social  order ;  ideas  which  appeal  to  intellects 
molded  by  modern  thought,  by  supplying  such  an  intel- 
lectual understanding  of  the  universe  as  justifies  the 
various  supra-communal  sanctions ;  and  ideas  which  ap- 
peal to  the  heart,  by  supplying  the  personal  demand  of 
each  individual  for  a  larger  life,  for  intercourse  with  the 
Father  of  all  Spirits  and  for  strength  for  the  prolonged 
battle  of  life — preach  these  and  kindred  ideas,  and  the 
Japanese  will  again  become  as  conspicuously  a  religious 
people  as  they  were  when  Buddhism  came  to  japan  a  thou- 
sand years  ago.* 

But  if  the  real  nature  of  a  full  and  perfect  religion  is 
to  save  not  only  the  individual,  providing  sanctions  for 

*  Writers  on  the  history  and  philosophy  of  religion  have  much 
to  say  about  the  differences  between  national  and  universal 
religions.  The  three  religions  which  they  pronounce  universal 
are  Mahomedanism,  Buddhism,  and  Christianity.  The  ground 
for  this  statement  is  the  fact  that  each  of  these  religions  has 
developed  strong  individualistic  characteristics.  They  are  con- 
cerned with  individual  salvation.  The  importance  of  this  ele- 
ment none  will  deny,  least  of  all  the  writer.  But  I  question  the 
correctness  of  the  descriptive  adjective.  Because  of  their  indi- 
vidualistic character  they  are  fitted  to  leap  territorial  boundaries 
and  can  find  acceptance  in  every  community;  for  this  they  are 
not  dependent  on  the  territorial  expansion  of  the  communities 
in  which  they  arose. 


JAPANESE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE  421 

his  conduct,  but  also  to  justify  the  social  order,  and  to  pro- 
vide sanctions  that  shall  secure  its  maintenance,  any  re- 
ligion which  fails  to  have  both  characteristics  can  hardly 
claim  the  name  universal.  We  have  seen  that  Buddhism 
lacks  one  of  these  elements.  In  my  judgment  it  is  not 
properly  universal.  So  long  as  it  exists  in  or  goes  to  a 
land  already  provided  with  other  religions  securing  the 
social  order,  it  may  continue  to  thrive.  But,  on  the  one 
hand,  it  can  never  become  the  exclusive  religion  of  any 
land  for  it  cannot  do  without  and  therefore  it  cannot  de- 
pose the  other  religions;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must 
give  way  before  the  stronger  religion  which  has  both  the 
individual  and  communal  elements  combined.  Buddhism, 
therefore,  lacks  a  vital  characteristic  of  a  universal  re- 
ligion. It  may  better  be  called  a  non-local,  or  an  inter- 
national religion.  We  now  see  another  reason  why  Bud- 
dhism, although  found  in  many  Oriental  lands,  has  never 
annihilated  any  of  the  pre-existing  religions,  but  has  only 
added  one  more  to  the  many  varieties  already  existing. 
It  is  so  in  Thibet,  in  China,  in  Burmah,  and  in  Japan. 
And  in  India,  its  home,  it  has  utterly  died  out. 

Many  of  the  efforts  made  by  students  of  comparative 
religion  to  classify  the  various  religions,  seem  to  the  writer 
defective  through  lack  of  the  perception  that  social  and 
religious  evolution  are  vitally  connected.  From  this  point 
of  view,  the  classification  of  religions  as  communal,  indi- 
vidual, and  communo-individual,  would  seem  to  be  the 
best. 


XXXVI 


WHAT  ARE  THE   ESSENTIAL  CHARACTERIS- 
TICS OF  THE  ORIENT? 


W: 


E  have  now  passed  in  rather  detailed  review 
the  emotional,  zesthetic,  intellectual,  moral,  and 
religious  characteristics  of  the  Japanese  race. 
We  have,  furthermore,  given  considerable  attention  to  the 
problem  of  personality.  We  have  tried  to  understand 
the  relation  of  each  characteristic  to  the  Japanese  feudal 
system  and  social  order. 

The  reader  will  perhaps  feel  some  dissatisfaction  with 
the  results  of  this  study.  "  Are  there,  then,"  he  may  say, 
"  no  distinctive  Japanese  psychical  characteristics  by 
which  this  Eastern  race  is  radically  differentiated  from 
those  of  the  Occident  ?  "  "  Are  there  no  peculiar  features 
of  an  Oriental,  mental  and  moral,  whicli  infallibly  and 
always  distinguish  him  from  an  Occidental  ?  "  The  reply 
to  this  question  given  in  the  preceding  chapters  of  this 
work  is  negative.  For  the  sake,  however,  of  the  reader 
who  may  not  yet  be  thoroughly  satisfied,  it  may  be  well 
to  examine  this  problem  a  little  further,  analyzing  some  of 
the  current  characterizations  of  the  Orient. 
'  That  Oriental  and  Occidental  peoples  are  each  possessed 
of  certain  unique  psychic  characteristics,  sharply  and  com- 
pletely differentiating  them  from  each  other,  is  the  opinion 
of  scientific  sociologists  as  well  as  of  more  popular 
writers.  An  Occidental  entering  the  Orient  is  well-nigh 
overwhelmed  with  amusement  and  surprise  at  the  antip- 
odal characteristics  of  the  two  civilizations.  Every  visi- 
ble expression  of  Oriental  civilization,  every  mode  of 
thought,  art,  architecture ;  conceptions  of  God,  man,  and 
nature ;  pronunciation  and  structure  of  the  language — all 
seem  utterly  different  from  their  corresponding  elements 
in  the  West.  Furthermore,  as  he  visits  one  Oriental 
422 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   THE    ORIENT     423 

country  after  another,  although  he  discovers  differences 
between  Japanese,  Koreans,  Chinese,  and  Hindus,  yet 
he  is  impressed  with  a  strange,  a  baffling  similarity. 

The  tourist  naturally  concludes  that  the  unity  character- 
izing the  Orient  is  fundamental ;  that  Oriental  civilization 
is  due  to  Oriental  race  brain,  and  Occidental  civilization 
is  due  to  Occidental  race  brain. 

This  impression  and  this  conclusion  of  the  tourist  are 
not,  however,  limited  to  him.  The  "  old  resident "  in 
the  East  becomes  increasingly  convinced  with  every  added 
year  that  an  Oriental  is  a  different  kind  of  human  being 
from  a  Westerner.  As  he  becomes  accustomed  to  the  ex- 
ternals of  the  Oriental  civilization,  he  forgets  its  comical 
aspects,  he  even  comes  to  appreciate  many  of  its  con- 
veniences. But  in  proportion  as  he  becomes  familiar 
with  its  languages,  its  modes  of  thought  and  feeling,  its 
business  methods,  its  politics,  its  literature,  its  amuse- 
ments, does  he  increasingly  realize  the  gulf  set  between 
an  Oriental  and  an  Occidental.  The  inner  life  of  the 
spirit  of  an  Oriental  would  be  utterly  inane,  spiritless  to 
the  average  Occidental.  The  "  old  resident  "  accordingly 
knows  from  long  experience  what  the  tourist  only  guesses 
from  a  hasty  glance,  that  the  characteristic  differences 
distinguishing  the  peoples  of  the  East  and  the  West  are 
racial  and  ineradicable.  An  Oriental  is  an  Oriental,  and 
that  is  the  ultimate,  only  thoroughgoing  explanation  of 
his  nature. 

The  conception  of  the  tourist  and  the  "  old  resident " 
crops  up  in  nearly  every  article  and  book  touching  on  Far 
Eastern  peoples.  Whatever  the  point  of  remark  or  criti- 
cism, if  it  strikes  the  writer  as  different  from  the  custom 
of  Occidentals,  it  is  laid  to  the  account  of  Orientalism. 

This  conception,  however,  of  distinguishing  Oriental 
characteristics,  is  not  confined  to  popular  writers  and  un- 
scientific persons.  Even  professed  and  eminent  sociolo- 
gists advocate  it.  Prof,  Le  Bon,  in  his  sophistic  volume 
on  the  "  Psychology  of  Peoples,"  advocates  it  strenuously. 
A  few  quotations  from  this  interesting  work  may  not  be 
out  of  place. 

"  The  object  of  this  work  is  to  describe  the  psycho- 


I 


424        EVOLUTION    OF   THE  JAPANESE 

logical  characteristics  which  constitute  the  soul  of  races, 
and  to  show  how  the  history  of  a  people  and  its  civiliza- 
tion is  determined  by  these  characteristics."  *  "  The 
point  that  has  remained  most  clearly  fixed  in  mind,  after 
long  journeys  through  the  most  varied  countries,  is  that 
each  people  possesses  a  mental  constitution  as  unaltering 
as  its  anatomical  characteristics,  a  constitution  which  is 
the  source  of  its  sentiments,  thoughts,  institutions,  beliefs, 
and  arts."  f 

"  The  life  of  a  people,  its  institutions,  beliefs,  and  arts, 
are  but  the  visible  expression  of  its  invisible  soul.  For  a 
people  to  transform  its  institutions,  beliefs,  and  arts  it 
must  first  transform  its  soul."  | 

"  Each  race  possesses  a  constitution  as  unvarying  as  its 
anatomical  constitution.  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that 
the  former  corresponds  to  a  certain  special  structure  of 
the  brain."  § 

"  A  negro  or  a  Japanese  may  easily  take  a  university 
degree  or  become  a  lawyer;  the  sort  of  varnish  he  thus 
acquires  is,  however,  quite  superficial  and  has  no  influence 
on  his  mental  constitution.  What  no  education  can  give 
him,  because  they  are  created  by  heredity  alone,  are  the 
forms  of  thought,  the  logic,  and  above  all  the  character 
of  the  Western  man."  || 

"  Cross-breeding  constitutes  the  only  infallible  means  at 
our  disposal  of  transforming  in  a  fundamental  manner 
the  character  of  a  people,  heredity  being  the  only  force 
powerful  enough  to  contend  with  heredity.  Cross-breed- 
ing allows  of  the  creation  of  a  new  race,  possessing  new 
physical  and  psychological  characteristics."  ^ 

Such,  then,  being  the  opinion  of  travelers,  residents,  and 
professional  sociologists,  it  is  not  to  be  lightly  rejected. 
Nor  has  it  been  lightly  rejected  by  the  writer.  For  years 
he  agreed  with  this  view,  but  repeated  study  of  the  prob- 
lem has  convinced  him  of  the  fallacy  of  both  the  concep- 
tion and  the  argument,  and  has  brought  him  to  the  posi- 
tion maintained  in  this  work. 

The    characteristics     differentiating    Occidental     and 

*  P.  xvii.  f  P.  xviii.  1  P.  19. 

§P.6-  IIP.  37.  HP.  83. 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   THE    ORIENT     425 

Oriental  peoples  and  civilizations  are  undoubtedly  great. 
But  they  are  differences  of  social  evolution  and  rest  on 
social,  not  on  biological  heredity.  Anatomical  differences 
are  nataT,' racial,  and  necessary.  Not  so  with  social  char- 
acteristics and  differences.  These  are  acquired  by  each 
individual  chiefly  after  birth,  and  depend  on  social  en- 
vironment which  determines  the  education  from  infancy 
upward.  Furthermore,  an  entire  nation  or  race,  if  sub- 
jected to  the  right  social  environment,  may  profoundly 
transform  its  institutions,  beliefs,  and  arts,  which  in  turn 
transform  what  Prof.  Le  Bon  and  kindred  writers  call 
the  invisible  "  race  soul."  Racial  activity  produces  race 
character,  for  "  Function  produces  organism."  I  cannot 
agree  with  these  writers  in  the  view  that  the  race  soul  is 
a  given  fixed  entity.  Social  psychogenesis  is  a  present 
and  a  progressive  process.  Japan  is  a  capital  illustration 
of  it.  In  the  development  of  races  and  civilizations  in- 
volution is  as  continuous  a  process  as  evolution.  Evolu- 
tion is,  indeed,  only  one-half  of  the  process.  Without 
involution,  evolution  is  incomprehensible.  And  involu- 
tion is  the  more  interesting  half,  as  it  is  the  more  signifi- 
cant. In  modern  discussion  much  that  passes  by  the 
name  of  evolution  is,  in  reality,  a  discussion  of  involu- 
tion. 

The  attentive  reader  will  have  discovered  that  the  real 
point  of  the  discussion  of  Japanese  characteristics  given 
in  the  preceding  chapters  has  been  on  the  point  of  involu- 
tion. How  have  these  characteristics  arisen?  has  been 
our  ever-recurring  question.  The  answer  has  invariably 
tried  to  show  their  relation  to  the  social  order.  In  this 
way  we  have  traversed  a  large  number  of  leading  char- 
acteristics of  the  Japanese.  We  have  seen  how  they  arose, 
and  also  how  they  are  now  being  transformed  by  the  new 
Occidentalized  social  order.  We  have  seen  that  not  one 
of  the  characteristics  examined  is  inherent,  that  is,  due 
to  brain  structure,  to  biological  heredity.  We  have  con- 
cluded, therefore,  that  the  psychical  characteristics  which 
differentiate  races  are  all  but  wholly  social. 

It  is  incumbent  on  advocates  of  the  biological  view  to 
point  out  in  detail  the  distinguishing  inherent  traits  of  the 
Orient.     Let  tliem  also  catalogue  the  essential  psychic 


426       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

characteristics  of  Occidentals.  Such  an  attempt  is  sel- 
dom made.  And  when  it  is  made"1t  is  singularly  uncon- 
vincing. Although  Prof.  Le  Bon  states  that  the  mental 
constitution  of  races  is  as  distinctive  and  unaltering  as 
their  anatomical  characteristics,  he  fails  to  tell  us  what 
they  are.  This  is  a  vital  omission.  If  the  differences  are 
as  distinct  as  he  asserts,  it  would  seem  to  be  an  easy 
matter  to  describe  them.  Whatever  the  clothing  adopted, 
it  is  an  easy  matter  for  one  to  distinguish  a  European 
from  an  Asiatic,  an  Englishman  from  an  Italian,  a  Japa- 
nese from  a  Korean,  a  Chinaman  from  a  Hindu.  The 
anatomical  characteristics  of  races  are  clear  and  easily 
described.  If  the  psychic  characteristics  are  equally  dis- 
tinct, why  do  not  they  who  assert  this  distinctness  describe 
and  catalogue  these  differences? 

Occasionally  a  popular  writer  makes  something  of  an 
attempt  in  this  direction,  but  with  astonishingly  slight  re- 
sults. A  recent  writer  in  the  London  Daily  Mail  has 
illustrated  afresh  the  futility  of  all  attempts  to  catalogue 
the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  Oriental.  He 
names  the  inferior  position  assigned  to  women,  the  licen- 
tiousness of  men,  licensed  prostitution,  lack  of  the  play  in- 
stinct among  Oriental  boys,  scorn  of  Occidental  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  rude  treatment  of  foreigners.  Many  of  his 
statements  of  facts  are  sadly  at  fault.  But  supposing 
them  to  be  true,  are  they  the  differentiating  characteristics 
of  the  Orient?  Consider  for  a  moment  what  was  the 
position  of  woman  in  ancient  times  in  the  Occident,  and 
what  was  the  moral  character  of  Occidental  men?  Is 
not  prostitution  licensed  to-day  in  the  leading  cities  of 
Europe?  And  is  there  not  an  unblushing  prostitution  in 
the  larger  cities  of  England  and  America  which  would 
put  to  shame  the  licensed  prostitution  of  Japan?  Are 
Orientals  and  their  civilization  universally  esteemed  and 
considerately  treated  in  the  Occident?  Surely  none  of 
these  arc  uniquely  Oriental  characteristics,  distinguishing 
them  from  Occidental  peoples  as  clearly  as  the  anatomical 
characteristics  of  oblique  eyes  and  yellow  skin. 

Mr.  Percival  Lowell  has  made  a  careful  philosophical 
effort  to  discover  the  essential  psychic  nature  of  the 
Orient.     He  describes  it,  as  wc  have  seen,  as  "  Imperson- 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   THE    ORIENT     427 

ality."  The  failure  of  his  effort  we  have  sufficiently  con- 
sidered. 

There  remain  a  few  other  characterizations  of  the  Ori- 
ent that  we  may  well  examine  briefly. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  characteristic  psychic  trait 
distinguishing  the  East  from  the  West  is  that  the  former 
is(^ntuitive,  while  the  latter  is  logical.  In  olden  times 
Oriental  instruction  relied  on  the  intuitions  of  the  student. 
No  reliance  was  placed  on  the  logical  process.  Religion, 
so  far  as  it  was  not  ceremony  and  magic,  was  intuitional, 
"  Satori,"  "  Enlightenment,"  was  the  keyword.  Each 
man  attains  enlightenment  by  himself — through  a  flash  of 
intuition.  Moral  instruction  likewise  was  intuitional. 
Dogmatic  statements  were  made  whose  truth  the  learner 
was  to  discover  for  himself ;  no  effort  was  made  to  explain 
them.  Teaching  aimed  to  go  direct  to  the  point,  not 
stopping  to  explain  the  way  thither. 

That  this  was  and  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Orient 
cannot  be  disputed.  The  facts  are  abundant  and  clear. 
But  the  question  is  whether  this  is  a  racial  psychic  char- 
acteristic, such  that  it  inevitably  controls  the  entire  think- 
ing of  an  Oriental,  whatever  his  education,  and  also 
whether  the  Occident  is  conspicuously  deficient  in  this 
psychic  characteristic.  Thus  stated,  the  question  almost 
answers  itself. 

Orientals  educated  in  Western  methods  of  thought  ac- 
quire logical  methods  of  reasoning  and  teaching.  The  old 
educational,  methods  of  Japan  are  now  obsolete.  On  the 
other  hand,  intuitionalism  is  not  unknown  in  the  West. 
Mystics'  in  religion  are  all  conspicuously  intuitional.  So 
too  are  Christian  scientists,  faith-healers,  and  spiritual- 
ists. Great  preachers  and  poets  are  intuitionalists  rather 
than  logicians. 

Furthermore,  if  we  look  to  ancient  times,  we  shall  see 
that  even  Occidentals  were  dominated  by  intuitionalism. 
All  primitive  knowledge  was  dominated  by  intuitions,  and 
was  as  absurd  as  many  still  prevalent  Oriental  conceptions 
of  nature.  The  bane  of  ancient  science  and  philosophy 
was  its  reliance  on  a  priori  considerations ;  that  is,  on  in- 
tuition. Inductive,  carefully  logical  methods  of  thought, 
of  science,  of  philosophy,  and  even  of  religion,  are  rela- 


428       EVOLUTION    OF  THE   JAPANESE 

tively  modern  developments  of  the  Occidental  mind.  We 
have  learned  to  doubt  intuitions  unverified  by  investiga- 
tion and  experimental  evidence.  The  wide  adoption  of 
the  inductive  method  is  a  recent  characteristic  of  the 
West. 

Modern  progress  has  consisted  in  no  slight  degree  in 
the  development  of  logical  powers,  and  particularly  in  the 
power  of  doubting  and  examining  intuitions.  To  say  that 
the  East  is  conspicuously  intuitional  and  the  West  is  con- 
spicuously logical  is  fairly  true,  but  this  misses  the  real 
difference.  The  West  is  intuitional  plus  logical.  It  uses 
the  intuitional  method  in  every  department  of  life,  but  it 
does  not  stop  with  it.  An  intuition  is  not  accepted 
as  truth  until  it  has  been  subjected  by  the  reason  to  the 
most  thorough  criticism  possible.  The  West  distrusts  the 
unverified  and  unguided  intuitive  judgment.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  East  is  not  inherently  deficient  in  logical  power. 
When  brought  into  contact  with  Occidental  life,  and 
especially  when  educated  in  Occidental  methods  of 
thought,  the  Oriental  is  not  conspicuously  deficient  in 
logical  ability. 

This  line  of  thought  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
psychic  characteristics  distinguishing  the  East  from  the 
West,  profound  though  they  are,  are  sociological  rather 
than  biological.  They  are  the  characteristics  of  the  civi- 
lization rather  than  of  essential  race  nature. 

A  fact  remarked  by  many  thoughtful  Occidentals  is  the 
astonishing  difficulty — indeed  the  impossibility — of  becom- 
ing genuinely  and  intimately  acquainted  with  the  Japa- 
nese. Said  a  professor  of  Harvard  University  to  the  writer 
some  years  ago :  "  Do  you  in  Japan  find  it  difiicult  to  be- 
come truly  acquainted  with  the  Japanese  ?  We  see  many 
students  here,  but  we  are  unable  to  gain  more  than  a  su- 
])erficial  acquaintance.  They  seem  to  be  incrustetl  in  a 
shell  that  we  are  unable  to  pierce."  The  editor  of  the 
Japan  Mail,  speaking  of  the  difficulty  of  securing  "  gen- 
uinely intimate  intercourse  with  the  Japanese  people," 
says :  "  The  language  also  is  needed.  Yet  even  when  the 
language  is  added,  something  still  remains  to  be  achieved, 
and  what  that  something  is  we  have  never  been  able  to 
discover,  though  we  have  been  considering  the  subject  for 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE    ORIENT     429 

thirty-three  years.  No  foreigner  has  ever  yet  succeeded 
in  being  admitted  into  the  inner  circle  of  Japanese  inter- 
course." 

Is  this  a  fact?  If  not,  why  is  it  so  widespread  a  be- 
Hef  ?  If  it  is  a  fact,  what  is  the  interpretation  ?  Like  most 
generahzations  it  expresses  both  a  truth  and  an  error.  As 
the  statement  of  a  general  experience,  I  believe  it  to  be 
true.  As  an  assertion  of  universal  application  I  believe  it 
to  be  false.  As  a  truth,  how  is  it  to  be  explained  ?  Is  it 
due  to  difference  of  race  soul,  and  thus  to  racial  antipathy, 
as  some  maintain?  If  so,  it  must  be  a  universal  fact. 
This,  however,  is  an  error,  as  we  shall  see.  The  explana- 
tion is  not  so  hard  to  find  as  at  first  appears. 

The  difficulty  under  consideration  is  due  to  two  classes 
of  facts.  The  first  is  that  the  people  have  long  been  taught 
that  Occidentals  desire  to  seize  and  possess  their  land. 
Although  the  more  enlightened  have  long  since  abandoned 
this  fear  and  suspicion,  the  people  still  suspect  the 
stranger ;  they  do  not  propose  to  admit  foreigners  to  any 
leading  position  in  the  political  life  of  the  land.  They  do 
not  implicitly  trust  the  foreigners,  even  when  taken  into 
their  employ.  That  fojei^ners  should  not  be  admitted  to 
the  inner  circle  of  Japanese  political  life,  therefore,  is  not 
strange.  I^or  is  it  unique  to  Japan.  It  is  not  done  in  any 
land  except  the  United  States.  Secondly,  the  diverse 
methods  of  social  intercourse  characterizing  the  East  and 
the  West  make  a  deep  chasm  between  individuals  of  these 
civilizations  on  coming  into  social  relations.  The  Oriental 
bows  low,  utters  conventional  "  aisatsu "  salutations, 
listens  respectfully,  withholds  his  own  opinion,  agrees 
with  his  vis-a-vis,  weighs  every  word  uttered  with  a  view 
to  inferring  the  real  meaning,  for  the  genius  of  the  lan- 
guage requires  him  to  assume  that  the  real  meaning  is  not 
on  the  surface,  and  chooses  his  own  language  with  the 
same  circumspection.  The  Occidental  extends  his  hand 
for  a  hearty  shake — if  he  wishes  to  be  friendly — 
looks  his  visitor  straight  in  the  eye,  speaks  directly  from 
his  heart,  without  suspicion  or  fear  of  being  misunder- 
stood, expresses  his  own  opinions  unreservedly.  The  Oc- 
cidental, accustomed  to  this  direct  and  open  manner,  spon- 
taneously doubts  the  man  who  lacks  it.    It  is  impossible 


430       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

for  the  Occidental  to  feel  genuinely  acquainted  with  an 
Oriental  who  does  not  respond  in  Occidental  style  of 
frank  open  intercourse.  Furthermore,  it  is  not  Japanese 
custom  to  open  one's  heart,  to  make  friends  with  every- 
one who  comes  along.  The  hail-fellow-well-met  char- 
acteristic of  the  Occident  is  a  feature  of  its  individualism, 
that  could  not  come  into  being  in  a  feudal  civilization 
in  which  every  respectable  man  carried  two  swords  with 
which  to  take  instant  vengeance  on  whoever  should  ma- 
lign or  doubt  him.  Universal  secretiveness  and  conven- 
tionality, polite  forms  and  veiled  expressions,  were  the 
necessary  shields  of  a  military  feudalism.  Both  the  social 
order  and  the  language  were  fitted  to  develop  to  a  high 
degree  the  power  of  attention  to  minutest  details  of  man- 
ner and  speech  and  of  inferring  important  matters  from 
slight  indications.  The  whole  social  order  served  to  de- 
velop the  intuitional  method  in  human  relations.  Reliance 
was  placed  more  on  what  was  not  said  than  on  what  was 
clearly  expressed.  A  doubting  state  of  mind  was  the  nec- 
essary psychological  prerequisite  for  such  an  inferential 
system.  And  doubt  was  directly  taught.  "  Hito  wo  mircba 
dorobo  to  omoye,"  "  when  you  see  a  man,  count  him  a  rob- 
ber," may  be  an  exaggeration,  but  this  ancient  proverb 
throws  much  light  on  the  Japanese  chronic  state  of  mind. 
Mutual  suspicion — and  especially  suspicion  of  strangers — 
was  the  rule  in  Old  Japan.  Among  themselves  the  Japa- 
nese make  relatively  few  intimate  friends.  They  remark 
on  Occidental  skill  in  making  friends. 

That  the  foreigner  is  not  admitted  to  the  inner  social 
life  of  the  Japanese  is  likewise  not  difficult  of  explanation, 
if  we  bear  in  mind  the  nature  of  that  social  life.  Is  it 
possible  for  one  who  keeps  concubines,  who  takes  pleasure 
in  geisha,  and  who  visits  houses  of  prostitution,  to  con- 
verse freely  and  confidentially  with  those  who  condemn 
these  practices?  Can  he  who  stands  for  a  high-grade 
morality,  who  criticises  in  unsparing  measure  the  current 
morality  of  Japanese  society,  expect  to  be  admitted  to  its 
inner  social  circles?  Impossible.  Flowever  friendly  the 
relations  of  Japanese  and  foreigners  may  be  in  business 
and  in  the  diplomatic  corps,  the  moral  chasm  separating 
the  social  life  of  the  Occident  from  that  of  the  Orient  ef- 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   THE    ORIENT     431 

factually  prevents  a  foreigner  from  being  admitted  to  its 
inner  social  life. 

It  might  be  thought  that  immoral  Occidentals  would  be 
so  admitted.  Not  so.  The  Japanese  distinguish  between 
Occidentals.  They  know  well  that  immoral  Occidentals 
are  not  worthy  of  trust.  Although  for  a  season  they  may 
hobnob  together,  the  intimacy  is  shallow  and  short-lived ; 
it  rests  on  lust  and  not  on  profound  sympathies  of  head 
and  heart. 

And  this  suggests  the  secret  of  genuine  acquaintance. 
Men  become  profoundly  acquainted  in  proportion  as  they 
hold  in  common  serious  views  of  life,  and  labor  together 
for  the  achievement  of  great  moral  ends.  Now  a  gulf  sep- 
arates the  ordinary  Japanese,  even  though  educated,  from 
the  serious-minded  Occidental.  Their  views  of  life  are 
well-nigh  antipodal.  If  their  social  intercourse  is  due  only 
to.  the  accident  of  business  or  of  social  functions,  what 
true  intimacy  can  possibly  arise?  The  acquaintance  can 
only  be  superficial.  Nothing  binds  the  two  together  be- 
yond the  temporary  and  accidental.  Let  them,  however, 
become  possessed  of  a  common  and  a  serious  view  of  life ; 
let  them  strive  for  the  attainment  of  some  great  moral  re- 
form, which  they  feel  of  vital  importance  to  the  welfare 
of  the  nation  and  the  age,  and  immediately  a  bond  of 
connection  and  intercourse  will  be  established  which  will 
ripen  into  real  intimacy. 

I  dispute  the  correctness  of  the  generalization  above 
quoted,  however,  not  only  on  theoretical  considera- 
tions, but  also  as  a  matter  of  experience.  Among  Chris- 
tians, the  conditions  are  fulfilled  for  intimate  relations 
between  Occidentals  and  Orientals  which  result,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  in  genuine  and  intimate  friendship.  The  rela- 
tions existing  between  many  missionaries  and  the  native 
Christians  and  pastors  refute  the  assertion  of  the  editor 
of  the  Japan  Mail  that,  "  no  foreigner  has  ever  yet  suc- 
ceeded in  being  admitted  into  the  inner  circle  of  Japanese 
intercourse."  This  assertion  is  doubtless  true  in  regard 
to  the  relation  of  foreigners  to  non-Christian  society. 
The  reason,  for  the  fact,  however,  is  not  because  one  is 
Occidental  and  the  other  Oriental  in  psychic  nature,  but 
solely  because  of  diverse  moral  views,  aims,  and  conduct. 


432        EVOLUTION    OF    THE  JAPANESE 

It  is  not  the  contention  of  these  pages,  however,  that 
intimate  friendships  between  Occidental  and  Oriental 
Christians  are  as  easily  formed  as  between  members  of 
two  Occidental  nations.  Although  common  views  of  life, 
and  common  moral  aims  and  conduct  may  provide  the 
requisite  foundations  for  such  intimate  friendships,  the 
diverse  methods  of  thought  and  of  social  intercourse  may 
still  serve  to  hinder  their  formation.  It  is  probably  a 
fact  that  missionaries  experience  greater  difficulty  in  mak- 
ing genuine  intimate  friendships  with  Japanese  Christians 
than  with  any  other  race  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  The 
reasons  for  this  fact  are  manifold.  The  Japanese  racial 
ambition  manifests  itself  not  only  in  the  sphere  of 
political  life ;  it  does  not  take  kindly  to  foreign  con- 
trol in  any  line.  The  churches  manifest  this  character- 
istic. It  is  a  cause  of  suspicion  of  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary and  separation  from  him;  it  has  broken  up 
many  a  friendship.  Intimacy  between  missionaries  and 
leading  native  pastors  and  evangelists  was  more  common 
in  the  earlier  days  of  Christian  work  than  more  recently, 
because  the  Japanese  church  organization  has  recently 
developed  a  self-consciousness  and  an  ambition  for  organic 
independence  which  have  led  to  mutual  criticisms. 

Furthermore,  Japanese  Christians  are  still  Japanese. 
Their  methods  of  social  intercourse  are  Oriental;  they 
bow  profoundly,  they  repeat  formal  salutations,  they  re- 
frain from  free  expression  of  personal  opinion  and  prefer- 
ence. The  crust  of  polite  etiquette  remains.  The  for- 
eigner must  learn  to  appreciate  it  before  he  can  penetrate 
to  the  kindly,  sincere,  earnest  heart.  This  the  foreigner 
does  not  easily  do,  much  to  the  detriment  of  his  work. 

And  on  the  other  hand,  before  the  Oriental  can  pene- 
trate to  the  kindly,  sincere,  and  earnest  heart  of  the  Occi- 
dental, he  must  abandon  the  inferential  method ;  he  must 
not  judge  the  foreigner  by  what  is  left  unsaid  nor  by 
slight  turns  of  that  wliich  is  said,  but  by  the  whole  thought 
as  fully  expressed.  In  other  words,  as  the  Occidental 
must  learn  and  must  trust  to  Oriental  methods  of  social 
intercourse,  so  the  Oriental  nuist  learn  and  must  trust  to 
the  corresponding  Occidental  methods.  Tlie  difficulty 
is  great   in   either   case,   though   oi  an   opposite   nature. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE    ORIENT     433 

Which  has  the  greater  difficulty  is  a  question  I  do  not 
attempt  to  solve. 

Another  generalization  as  to  the  essential  difference 
marking  Oriental  and  Occidental  psychic  natures  is  that 
the  former  is  meditative  and  appreciative,  and  the  latter  is 
active.  This  too  is  a  characterization  of  no  little  truth. 
T-he  easy-going,  time-forgetting,  dreaming  characteristics 
of  the  Orient  are  in  marked  contrast  to  the  rush,  bustle, 
and  hurry  of  the  Occident.  One  of  the  first  and  most 
forcible  impressions  made  on  the  Oriental  visiting  the 
West  is  the  tremendous  energy  displayed  even  in  the  ordi- 
nary everyday  business.  In  the  home  there  is  haste ;  on 
^the  streets  men,  women,  and  children  are  "  always  on  the 
Vun."  It  must  seem  to  be  literally  so,  when  the  walk  of 
the  Occidental  is  compared  with  the  slow,  crawling  rate 
at  which  the  Oriental  moves.  Horse  cars,  electric  cars, 
steam  cars,  run  at  high  speed  through  crowded  streets. 
Conversation  is  short  and  hurried.  Visits  are  curtailed — 
hardly  more  than  glimpses.  Everyone  is  so  nervously 
busy  as  to  have  no  time  for  calm,  undisturbed  thought.. 
So  does  the  Orient  criticise  and  characterize  the 
Occident. 

In  the  Orient,  on  the  contrary,  time  is  nothing.  Walk- 
ing is  slow,  business  is  deliberate,  visiting  is  a  fine  art  of 
bows  and  conventional  phrases  preliminary  to  the  real 
purpose  of  the  call ;  amusements  even  are  long-drawn-out, 
theatrical  performances  requiring  an  entire  day.  In  the 
home  there  is  no  hurry,  on  the  street  there  is  no  rush.  To 
the  Occidental,  the  Oriental  seems  so  absorbed  in  a  dream 
life  that  the  actual  life  is  to  him  but  a  dream.  _ 

irthe  characterization  we  are  considering  is  meant  to 
signify  that  the  Orient  possesses  a  power  of  appreciation 
not  possessed  by  the  West,  then  it  seems  to  me  an  error. 
The  Occident  is  not  deficient  in  appreciation.  A  better 
statement  of  the  difference  suggested  by  the  above  char- 
acterization is  that  Western  civilization  is  an  expression 
ot.Will,  whereas  Eastern  civilization  is  an  expression  of 
subordination  to  the  superior — to  Fate.  This  feature  of 
Oriental  character  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Orient  is 
still  as  a  whole  communal  in  its  social  order,  whereas  the 
Occident  is  individualistic.     In  the  West  each  man  makes 


434       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

his  own  fortune ;  his  position  in  society  rests  on  his  own 
individual  energy.  He  is  free  to  exert  it  at  will.  Society 
praises  him  in  proportion  as  he  manifests  energy,  grit, 
independence,  and  persistence.  The  social  order  selects 
such  men  and  advances  them  in  political,  in  business,  in 
social,  and  in  academic  life.  The  energetic,  active  char- 
acteristics of  the  West  are  due,  then,  to  the  high  develop- 
ment of  individualism.  The  entire  Occidental  civiliza- 
tion is  an  expression  of  free  will. 

The  communal  nature  of  the  Orient  has  not  system- 
atically given  room  for  individual  progress.  The  inde- 
pendent, driving  man  has  been  condemned  socially.  Sub- 
mission, absolute  and  perpetual,  to  parents,  to  lord,  to  an- 
cestors, to  Fate,  has  been  the  ruling  idea  of  each  man's  life. 
Controlled  by  such  ideas,  the  easy-going,  time-ignoring, 
dreaming,  contemplative  life — if  you  so  choose  to  call  it — 
of  the  Orient  is  a  necessary  consequence. 

But  has  this  characteristic  become  congenital,  or  is  it 
still  only  social?  Is  dreamy  appreciation  now  an  inborn 
racial  characteristic  of  Oriental  mind,  while  active  driv- 
ing energy  is  the  corresponding  essential  trait  of  Occi- 
dental mind?  Or  may  these  characteristics  change  with 
the  social  order?  I  have  no  hesitancy  whatever  in  ad- 
vocating the  latter  position.  The  way  in  which  Young 
Japan,  clad  in  European  clothing,  using  watches  and 
running  on  "  railroad  time,"  has  dropped  the  slow-going 
style  of  Old  Japan  and  has  acquired  habits  of  rapid  walk- 
ing, direct  clear-cut  conversation,  and  nunctuality  in  busi- 
ness and  travel  (comparatively  speaking)  proves  con- 
clusively the  correctness  of  my  contention.  New  Japan 
is  entering  into  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  Occidental  life, 
because,  in  contact  with  the  West,  she  has  adopted  in  a 
large  measure,  though  not  yet  completely,  the  indi- 
vidualism of  the  West. 

As  time  goes  on,  Japanese  civilization  will  increasingly 
manifest  the  phenomena  of  will,  and  will  proportionally 
become  assimilated  to  the  civilization  of  the  West.  Rut 
the  ultimate  cause  of  this  transformation  in  civilization 
will  be  the  increasing  introduction  of  individualism  into 
the  social  order.  And  this  is  possible  only  because  the 
so-called  racial  characteristics  are  sociological,  and  not 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   THE    ORIENT     435 

biological.  The  transformation  of  "  race  soul  "  therefore 
does  not  depend  on  the  intermarriage  of  diverse  races,  but 
only  on  the  adoption  of  new  ideas  and  practices  through 
social  intercourse. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  the  only  thoroughgoing  inter- 
pretation of  the  differences  characterizing  Eastern  and 
Western  psychic  nature  is  a  social  one,  and  that  social 
differences  can  be  adequately  expressed  only  by  contrast- 
ing the  fundamental  ideas  ruling  their  respective  social 
orders,  namely,  communalism  for  the  East  and  individual- 
ism for  the  West. 

The  unity  that  pervades  the  Orient,  if  it  is  not  due  to 
the  inheritance  of  a  common  psychic  nature,  to  what  is  it 
due?  Surely  to  the  possession  of  a  common  civilization 
and  social  order.  It  would  be  hard  to  prove  that  Japa-  / 
nese,  Koreans,  Chinese,  Siamese,  Burmese,  Hindus  (and  / 
how  many  distinct  races  does  the  ethnologist  find  in  1 
India),  Persians,  and  Turks  are  all  descendants  from  a  \ 
common  ancestry  and  are  possessed  therefore  by  physical  1 
heredity  of  a  common  racial  psychic  nature.  Yet  such  is 
the  requirement  of  the  theory  we  are  opposing.  That  the 
races  inhabiting  the  Asiatic  continent  have  had  from  an- 
cient times  mutual  social  intercourse,  whereby  the  civili- 
zation, mental,  moral,  and  spiritual,  of  the  most  developed 
has  passed  to  the  other  nations,  so  that  China  has  domi- 
nated Eastern  Asia,  and  India  has  profoundly  influenced 
all  the  races  inhabiting  Asia,  is  an  indisputable  fact.  The 
psychic  unity  of  the  Orient  is  a  civilizational,  a  social 
unity,  as  is  also  the  psychic  unity  of  the  Occident.  The 
reason  why  the  Occident  is  so  distinct  from  the  Orient  in 
social,  in  psychic,  and  in  civilizational  characteristics  is 
because  these  two  great  branches  of  the  human  race  have 
undergone  isolated  evolution.  Isolated  biological  evolu- 
tion has  produced  the  diverse  races.  These  are  now  fixed 
physical  types,  which  can  be  modified  only  by  intermar- 
riage. But  although  isolated  social  evolution  has  pro- 
duced diverse  social  and  psychic  characteristics  these  are 
not  fixed  and  unalterable.  To  transform  psychic  and 
social  characteristics,  intimate  social  intercourse,  under 
special  conditions,  is  needful  alone. 

If  the  characteristics  differentiating  the  Eastern  from 


r': 


436        EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  Western  peoples  are  only  social,  it  might  be  supposed 
that  the  results  of  association  would  be  mutual,  the  East 
influencing  the  West  as  much  as  the  West  influences  the 
East,  both  at  last  finding  a  common  level.  Such  a  result, 
however,  is  impossible,  from  the  laws  regulating  psychic 
-'^and  social  intercourse.  The  less  developed  psychic  nature 
can  have  no  appreciable  effect  on  the  more  highly  devel- 
oped, just  as  undeveloped  art  cannot  influence  highly  de- 
veloped art,  nor  crude  science  and  philosophy  highly 
developed  science  and  philosophy.  The  law  governing 
the  relations  of  diverse  civilizations  when  brought  into 
contact  is  not  like  the  law  of  hydrostatics,  whereby  two 
bodies  of  water  of  different  levels,  brought  into  free  com- 
munication, finally  find  a  common  level,  determined  by  the 
distance  between  them  and  their  respective  masses.  In 
social  intercourse  the  higher  civilization  is  unaffected  by 
the  lower,  in  any  important  way,  while  the  lower  is 
mightily  modified,  and  in  sufficient  time  is  lifted  to  the 
grade  of  the  higher  in  all  important  respects.  This  is  a 
law  of  great  significance.  The  Orient  is  becoming  Occi- 
dentalized  to  a  degree  and  at  a  rate  little  realized  by  trav- 
elers and  not  fuily  appreciated  by  the  Orientals  them- 
selves. They  know  that  mighty  changes  have  taken 
place,  and  are  now  taking  place,  but  they  do  not  fully  rec- 
ognize their  nature,  and  the  multitudes  do  not  know  the 
f  source  of  these  changes.  In  so  far  as  the  East  has  sur- 
/  '  (  passed  the  West  in  any  important  direction  will  the  East 
\    influence  the  West. 

V  In  saying,  then,  as  we  did  in  our  first  chapter,  that  the 
Japanese  have  already  formed  an  Occidento-Oriental 
civilization,  we  meant  that  Japan  has  introduced  not  only 
the  external  and  mechanical  elements  of  Western  civiliza- 
tion into  her  new  social  order,  but  also  its  inner  and  deter- 
minative principle — individualism.  In  saying  that,  as 
the  Ethiopian  cannot  change  his  skin  nor  the  leopard  his 
spots,  so  Ja])an  will  never  become  thoroughly  Occident- 
alizcd,  we  did  not  intend  to  say  that  she  was  so  Oriental 
in  her  physiological  nature,  in  her  "  race  soul."  that  she 
could  make  no  fundamental  social  transformation;  but 
merely  that  slie  has  a  social  heredity  that  will  always  and 
inevitably  modify  every  Occidental  custom  and  conception 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE    ORIENT      437 

that  may  be  brought  to  this  land.  Although  in  time  Japan 
may  completely  individualize  her  social  order,  it  will  never 
be  identical  with  that  of  the  West.  It  will  always  bear 
the  marks  of  her  Oriental  social  heredity  in  innumerable 
details.  The  Occidental  traveler  will  always  be  impressed 
with  the  Orientalisms  of  her  civilization.  Although  the 
Oriental  familiar  with  the  details  of  the  pre-Meiji  social 
order  will  be  impressed  with  what  seems  to  him  the  com- 
plete Occidentalization  of  her  new  civilization  and  social 
order,  although  to-day  communalism  and  individualism 
are  the  distinguishing  characteristics  respectively  of  the 
East  and  the  West,  they  are  not  necessary  characteristics 
due  to  inherent  race  nature.  The  Orient  is  sure  to  be- 
come increasingly  individualistic.  The  future  evolution 
of  the  great  races  of  the  earth  is  to  be  increasingly  con- 
vergent in  all  the  essentials  of  individual  and  racial  pros- 
perity, but  in  countless  non-essential  details  the  customs  of 
the  past  will  remain,  to  give  each  race  and  nation  dis- 
tinctive psychic  and  social  characteristics. 


XXXVII 
GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS 

THE  aim  of  the  present  work  has  been  to  gain  in- 
sight into  the  real  nature  of  both  Japanese  char- 
acter and  its  modern  transformation. 

In  doing  this  we  have  necessarily  entered  the  domain 
of  social  science,  where  we  have  been  compelled  to  take 
issue  with  many,  to  us,  defective  conceptions.  Our  dis- 
cussions of  social  principles  have,  however,  been  narrowly 
limited.  We  have  confined  our  attention  to  the  interpre- 
tation of  those  social  and  psychic  characteristics  differ- 
entiating the  Japanese  from  otiier  races.  Our  chief  con- 
tention has  been  that  these  characteristics  are  due  to  the 
nature  of  the  social  order  that  has  prevailed  among  them, 
and  not  to  the  inherent  nature  of  the  people ;  and  that  the 
evolution  of  the  psychic  characteristics  of  all  races  is  due 
to  social  more  than  to  biological  evolution. 

This  position  and  the  discussions  offered  to  prove  it 
imply  more  than  has  been  explicitly  stated.  In  this  clos- 
ing chapter  it  seems  desirable  to  state  concisely,  and  there- 
fore with  technical  terminology,  some  of  the  more  funda- 
mental principles  of  social  philosophy  assumed  or  implied 
in  this  work.  Brevity  requires  that  this  statement  take 
the  form  of  dogmatic  propositions  and  unillustrated  ab- 
stractions. The  average  reader  will  find  little  to  interest 
him,  and  is  accordingly  advised  to  omit  it  entirely. 

Let  us  first  clearly  see  that  we  have  made  no  effort  to 
account  for  the  origin  or  inherent  nature  of  psychic  life. 
That  association  or  the  social  order  is  the  original  jirotluc- 
ing  cause  of  psychic  life  is  by  no  means  our  contention. 
Given  the  psychic  nature  as  we  find  it  in  man,  the  prob- 
lem is  to  account  for  its  diverse  manifestati(~>n  in  the  dif- 
ferent races  and  civilizations.  This,  and  this  alone,  has 
been  our  problem. 

438 


GENERAL    CONCLUSIONS  439 

Psychic  nature  is  the  sole  and  final  cause  of  social  life. 
Without  psychic  nature  there  could  be  no  association. 
Personalized  psychic  nature  is  the  sole  and  final  cause  of 
human  social  life.  Numberless  conditions  determine  by 
stimulation  or  imitation  the  manifestation  of  psychic  life. 
These  conditions  differ  for  different  lands,  peoples,  ages, 
and  political  relations,  producing  diverse  social  orders  for 
each  separated  group.  These  diverse  social  orders  de- 
termine the  psychic  characteristics  differentiating  the 
various  groups.  Social  life  and  social  order  are  objective 
expressions  of  a  reality  of  which  psychic  nature  is  the 
subjective  and  therefore  deeper  reality.  The  two  cannot 
be  ruthlessly  torn  apart  and  remain  complete,  nor  can  they 
be  understood,  or  completely  interpreted,  apart  from  each 
other.  They  are  correlative  and  complementary  expres- 
sions for  the  same  reality. 

Similarly  physical  and  psychical  life  are  to  be  conceived 
as  profoundly  interrelated,  being  respectively  objective 
and  subjective  expressions  of  a  reality  incapable  of  sepa- 
rate interpretation.  Yet  each  has  markedly  distinct  char- 
acteristics and  is  the  subject"  of  distinct  laws  of  activity 
and  development. 

Heredity  is  of  two  kinds,  biological  heredity,  transmit- 
ting innate  characters,  and  social  heredity,  transmitting 
acquired  habits  and  their  physiological  results. 

The  innate  characters  transmitted  by  biological  heredity 
are  either  physiological,  anatomical,  or  psychical. 

The  acquired  habits  transmitted  by  social  heredity  are 
essentially  psychical:  but  they  may  result  in  acquired 
physiological,  or  even  anatomical,  characters.  Here  be- 
long the  physiological  effects  of  diet,  housing,  clothing, 
occupation,  education,  etc.,  which  have  not  yet  been  taken 
up  and  incorporated  into  the  innate  physiological  consti- 
tution by  biological  heredity.  The  physiological  effects 
of  social  heredity  are  through  the  daily  physical  life  and 
activity  of  each  individual,  in  accordance  with  the  require- 
ments of  the  social  order  in  which  he  is  reared ;  and  these 
are  reached  through  its  influence  on  the  acquired  psychical 
habits,  which  are  transmitted  through  association,  imita- 
tion, and  the  control  of  activities  by  language  and  edu- 
cation. 


440       EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

In  biological  heredity  the  transmission  is  exclusively 
prior  to  birth,  while  in  social  heredity  it  is  chiefly,  if  not 
entirely,  after  birth. 

In  social  heredity  the  transmission  is  not  determined  by 
consanguinity,  and  therefore  extends  to  members  of  alien 
races  when  they  are  incorporated  in  the  social  organiza- 
tion. 

While  the  transmission  of  biological  inheritance  to 
each  offspring  is  inevitable  and  complete,  that  of  social  in- 
heritance is  largely  voluntary.  It  is  also  more  or  less  com- 
plete, according  to  the  knowledge,  purpose,  and  effort  of 
the  individuals  concerned.  The  transmission  of  acquired 
social  and  psychic  characteristics  even  from  parents  to  off- 
spring depends  on  their  association,  and  the  imposition  on 
their  offspring  by  parents  of  their  own  modes  of  life. 
Sharing  with  parents  their  bodily  activities,  their  lan- 
guage and  their  environment, both  social  and  psychical,  the 
offspring  necessarily  develop  psychic  and  social  character- 
istics similar  to  those  of  the  parents. 

Evolution  takes  place  through  the  transformation  of 
inheritance.  The  evolution  of  innate  physiological, 
anatomical,  and  psychical  characters  takes  place  through 
the  transformation  of  biological  inheritance ;  and  the  evo- 
lution of  society  and  of  acquired  characters  chiefly  through 
the  transformation  of  social  inheritance. 

Nearly  all  biologists  admit  that  change  in  the  form  of 
natural  selection  is  one  of  the  principles  transforming 
biological  inheritance;  but  whether  the  acquired  char- 
acters of  parents  are  even  in  the  least  degree  inherited  by 
the  offspring,  thus  becoming  innate  characters,  is  one  of 
the  important  biological  problems  of  recent  years.  Into 
this  problem  we  have  not  entered,  though  we  recognize 
that  it  must  have  important  bearings  on  sociological 
science.  Briefly  stated,  it  is  this :  Do  social  and  psychic 
characteristics,  acquired  by  individuals  or  by  groups  of 
individuals,  affect  the  intrinsic  inherited  and  transmissible 
psychic  nature  in  such  ways  that  offspring,  by  the  mere 
fact  of  being  offspring,  necessarily  manifest  those  char- 
acteristics, regardless  of  the  particular  social  environment 
in  which  they  may  be  reared?  Into  this  problem,  thus 
broadly  stated,  we  do  not  enter.     Limiting  our  view  to 


GENERAL   CONCLUSIONS  441 

those  advanced  races  which  manifest  practically  equal 
physiological  development,  we  ask  whether  or  not  their 
differentiating  psychic  characteristics  are  due  to  modifica- 
tions of  their  inherited  and  intrinsic  psychic  nature,  such 
that  those  characteristics  are  necessarily  transmitted  to 
offspring  through  intrinsic  biological  heredity.  Current 
popular  and  scientific  sociology  seems  to  give  an  affirma- 
tive answer  to  this  question.  The  reply  of  this  work  em- 
phasizes the  negative.  Although  it  is  not  maintained  that 
there  is  absolutely  no  difference  whatever  in  the  psychic 
nature  of  the  different  races,  or  that  the  psychic  differences 
distinguishing  the  races  are  entirely  transmitted  by  social 
heredity,  it  is  maintained  that  this  is  very  largely  the  case 
— far  more  largely  than  is  usually  perceived  or  admitted. 
Such  inherent  differences,  if  they  exist,  are  so  vague  and 
intangible  as  practically  to  defy  discovery  and  clear  state- 
ment, and  may  be  practically  ignored. 

The  only  adequate  disproof  of  the  position  here  main- 
tained would  be  about  as  follows.  Let.  a  Japanese  infant 
be  reared  in  an  American  home  from  infancy,  not  only 
fed  and  clothed  as  an  American,  but  loved  as  a  member  of 
the  family  and  trained  as  carefully  and  affectionately  as 
one's  own  child.  The  full  conditions  require  that  not  only 
the  child  himself,  but  everyone  else,  be  ignorant  of  his 
parentage  and  race  in  order  that  he  be  thought  to  be,  and 
be  treated  as  though  he  were,  a  genuine  riiember  of  his 
adopting  home  and  people.  What  would  be  the  psychic 
characteristics  of  that  child  when  grown  to  manhood?  If 
he  should  manifest  psychic  traits  like  those  of  his  Japa- 
nese parents,  if  he  should  think  in  the  Japanese  order,  i£ 
he  should  have  a  tendency  to  use  prepositions  as  post- 
positions, if  he  should  drop  pronouns  and  should  use 
honorific  words  in  their  place,  if  he  should  be  markedly 
suspicious  and  inferential,  if  he  should  bow  in  making  his 
salutations  rather  than  shake  hands,  if  he  should  show 
marked  preference  for  sitting  on  the  floor  rather  than  on 
chairs,  and  for  chopsticks  to  knives  and  forks,  and  if 
developing  powers  as  an  artist  he  should  naturally  paint 
Japanese  pictures,  Japanese  landscapes,  and  Japanese  faces, 
finding  himself  unable  to  draw  according  to  the  canons  of 
Western  art,  if  on  developing  poetic  tastes  he  should  find 


442       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

special  pleasure  in  seventeen  syllable  or  thirty-one  syllable 
exclamatory  poems,  finding  little  interest  in  Longfellow 
or  Shakespeare,  if,  in  short,  he  slioukl  develop  a  predilec- 
tion for  any  distinctive  Japanese  custom,  habit  of  thought, 
method  of  speech,  emotion  or  volition,  it  would  evidently 
be  due  to  his  intrinsic  heredity.  If  in  all  these  matters, 
however,  he  should  prove  to  be  like  an  American,  acquir- 
ing an  American  education  like  any  American  boy,  and  if 
on  being  brought  to  Japan,  at,  say,  thirty  years  of  age, 
still  supposing  himself  to  be  an  American,  he  should  have 
equal  difficulty  with  any  American  in  mastering  the  lan- 
guage and  adapting  himself  to  and  understanding  the 
Japanese  people,  then  it  would  follow  that  his  psychic 
characteristics  have  been  inherited  socially  and  he  is  what 
he  is,  nationally,  because  of  his  social  heritage.  Such  a 
result  would  show  that  the  psychic  traits  differentiating 
races  are  social  and  not  intrinsic. 

We  have  limited  our  discussion  to  the  advanced  races 
because  the  problem  is  then  relatively  simple,  the  material 
abundant,  and  the  issue  clear.  ]\Iuch  discussion  in  the- 
ology, psychology,  and  sociology  is  futile  because  it  con- 
cerns that  practically  mythical  being,  the  aboriginal  man, 
aboutwhose  social  and  psychic  life  no  one  knows  anything, 
and  any  theorizer  can  say  what  he  chooses  without  fear 
of  shipwreck  on  incontrovertible  facts.  Whether  the  low- 
est races  known  to-day  are  differentiated  from  the  highest 
only  by  acquired  social  and  psychic  characteristics,  or 
also  by  differences  of  psychic  nature,  may  perhaps  be  an 
open  question.  However  this  may  be,  the  case  is  fairly 
clear  in  regard  to  the  higher  races  inhabiting  the  earth. 
Their  differentiating  psychic  characteristics  are,  for  the 
most  part,  not  due  to  diverse  psychic  nature,  but  to  diverse 
social  orders,  while  the  transmission  of  these  character- 
istics takes  place,  as  a  matter  of  observation,  through 
social  heredity. 

The  discussions  of  this  work  are  exclusively  concerned 
with  the  evolution  of  society  and  of  psychic  characteris- 
tics. But  even  in  this  limited  field  we  have  not  attempted 
to  cover  the  whole  ground.  We  have  given  our  chief  at- 
tention to  the  interdependence  of  social  phenomena  and 
psychic  characteristics.     The  causes  of  evolution  in  the 


GENERAL   CONCLUSIONS  443 

social  order  have  not  been  the  main  subject  under  dis- 
cussion. 

Segregation  is  the  essential  condition  on  which  diver- 
gent evolution  is  dependent.  Many  forms  of  segrega- 
tion may  be  specified,  under  each  of  which  evolution  pro- 
ceeds on  a  different  principle.  In  brief,  it  may  be  said 
that  biological  segregation  prevents  the  swamping  of  in- 
cipient organic  divergences,  by  preventing  the  inter- 
marriage of  those  possessing  such  divergences,  while 
social  segregation  prevents  the  swamping  of  incipient 
social  divergences  and  their  corresponding  incipient 
psychic  characteristics  by  preventing  the  inter-association 
of  those  having  such  tendencies. 

Biologically  segregated  groups  undergo  divergent  bio- 
logical evolution  through  segregated  marriage,  producing 
distinct  physiological  unities  or  racial  types.  These  racial 
types  are  now  relatively  fixed  and  can  be  appreciably 
modified  only  by  the  intermarriage  of  different  races. 

Socially  segregated  groups  undergo  divergent  social 
evolution  through  the  segregated  social  intercourse  of  the 
members  of  each  group,  producing  distinct  civilizational 
and  psychic  unities.  The  differences  between  these  social 
or  psychic  groups  are  relatively  plastic  and  are  the  sub- 
ject of  constant  variation.  The  modification  of  the  social 
and  psychic  characteristics  of  a  group  takes  place  through 
a  change  in  the  physical  or  social  environment  of  the 
group,  or  through  the  rise  of  strong  personalities  within 
the  group. 

Biologically  distinct  groups  may  thus  be  unified  bio- 
logically only  by  intermarriage,  while  socially  physically 
distinct  groups  may  be  unified  socially  and  psychically 
without  intermarriage,  but  exclusively  through  associa- 
tion. 

The  psychic  defects  of  the  offspring  of  interracial  mar- 
riages may  be  largely  due  to  the  defective  social  heredity 
transmitted  by  the  parents,  rather  than  to  mixed  intrinsic 
inheritance. 

The  term  "  race  soul  "  is  a  convenient,  though  delusive, 
because  highly  figurative,  expression  for  the  psychic  unity 
of  a  social  group.  The  unity  is  due  entirely  to  the  more 
or  less  complete  possession  by  the  individual  members  of 


444       EVOLUTION   OF   THE   JAPANESE 

the  group,  of  common  ideas,  ideals,  methods  of  thought, 
emotions,  volitions,  customs,  institutions,  arts,  and  beliefs. 

Each  individual  is  molded  psychically  to  the  type  of 
the  social  group  in  which  he  is  reared.  The  "  race  soul '' 
is  thus  imposed  on  the  individual  by  conscious  and  uncon- 
scious education. 

The  psychic  evolution  of  social  groups  is  divergent  so 
long  as  isolation  is  fairly  complete,  but  becomes  con- 
vergent in  proportion  to  association.  Perfect  association 
produces  complete  psychic  unity,  though  it  should  be 
noted  that  perfect  association  of  geographically  separated 
social  groups  is  practically  unattainable. 

The  essential  elements  constituting  national  unity  are 
psychic  and  social,  not  biological.  Racial  unity  is  bio- 
logical. The  same  race  may  accordingly  separate  into 
different  social  and  psychic  groups.  And  members  of 
different  races  may  belong  to  the  same  social  psychic 
group. 

The  so-called  "  race  soul "  of  many  sociologists  is, 
therefore,  a  fiction  and  indicates  mental  confusion.  The 
term  refers  not  to  the  racial  unity  of  inherent  psychic 
nature,  but  only  to  the  social  unity  of  socially  inherited 
psychic  characteristics.  Groups  thus  socially  unified  may 
or  may  not  be  racially  homogeneous.  In  point  of  fact  no 
race  is  strictly  homogeneous  biologically,  nor  is  any  social 
group  completely  unified  psychically. 

In  sociology  as  in  biology  function  produces  organism, 
that  is  to  say,  activity  produces  the  organ  or  faculty  fitted 
to  perform  the  activity.*  The  psychic  characteristics  dif- 
ferentiating social  groups  are  chiefly,  and  perhaps  exclu- 
sively, due  to  diverse  social  activities.  These  activities  are 
determined  by  innumerable  causes,  geographical,  climatic, 
economic,  political,  intellectual,  emotional,  and  personal. 

The  plasticity  of  a  psychic  group  is  due  to  the  plasticity 
of  the  infant  mind  and  brain,  whicli  is  wonderfully  capable 
of  acquiring  the  language,  thought  forms,  and  differenti- 

*  Whether  or  not  the  activity  modifies  the  transmissible  nature 
is  the  problem  as  to  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characteristics. 
The  dictum  that  function  produces  organism  does  not  say 
whether  that  organism  is  transmissible  or  not,  either  in  biology 
or  sociology. 


GENERAL    CONCLUSIONS  445 

ating  characteristics  of  any  g-roup  in  which  it  may  be 
reared.  To  what  extent  this  plasticity  extends  only  care- 
fully conducted  experiments  can  show.  In  the  higher 
Asiatic  and  European  races  we  find  it  to  be  much  greater 
than  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the  case,  but  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  the  lowest  races  possess  it  in  a  much  lower 
degree. 

The  relative  fixity  of  a  psychic  group  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  in  full-grown  adults,  who  form  the  majority  of  every 
group,  function  has  produced  structure.  Body,  brain,  and 
mind  have  "'set  "  or  crystallized  in  the  mold  provided  by 
the  social  order.  Influences  sufficiently  powerful  to  trans- 
form the  young  have  little  effect  on  the  adult.  The  rela- 
tive fixity  of  a  psychic  group  is  also  due  to  the  difficulty 
— well-nigh  impossibility — of  bringing  new  psychic  influ- 
ences to  bear  on  all  members  of  the  group  simultaneously. 
The  majority,  being  oblivious  to  the  new  psychic  forces, 
maintain  the  old  psychic  regime.  The  difficulty  of  re- 
form, of  transforming  a  social  order,  is  principally  due  to 
these  two  causes. 

The  "  character  "  of  a  people  (psychic  group)  consists 
of  its  more  or  less  unconscious,  because  structuralized 
or  incarnate,  ideas,  emotions,  and  volitions.  Chief  among 
them  are  those  concerning  the  character  of  God,  the  nature 
and  value  of  man  and  woman,  the  necessary  relation  of 
character  to  destiny,  the  nature  and  meaning  of  life  and 
death,  and  the  nature  and  the  authority  of  moral  law.  In 
proportion  as  the  social  order  incorporates  high  or  low 
views  on  these  vital  subjects,  is  the  character  of  the  people 
elevated  and  strong,  or  debased  and  weak. 

The  destiny  of  a  people,  and  the  role  it  plays  in  history, 
are  determined  not  by  chance  nor  yet  by  environment,  but 
in  the  last  analysis  by  its  own  character.  Yet  this  char- 
acter is  not  something  given  it  complete  at  the  start,  an 
intrinsic  psychical  inheritance,  nor  is  it  dependent  for 
transmission  on  biological  heredity,  passing  only  from 
parents  to  offspring.  Character  belongs  to  the  sphere  of 
social  psychic  life  and  is  the  subject  of  social  heredity. 
Through  social  intercourse  the  moral  character  dominat- 
ing a  psychic  group  may  be  transmitted  to  members  of  an 
alien  psychic  group.     This  usually  takes  place  through 


446      EVOLUTION    OF   THE   JAPANESE 

missionary  activity.  The  moral  character  of  a  psychic 
group  may  in  this  way  be  fundamentally  transformed, 
and  with  character,  destiny. 

Floating  ideas,  not  yet  woven  into  the  warp  and  woof 
of  life,  not  yet  incarnate  in  the  individual  or  in  the  social 
order,  have  little  influence  on  the  character  of  the  indi- 
vidual or  the  group,  however  beautiful,  true,  or  elevating 
such  ideas  may  be  in  themselves.  The  character  of  a 
people  is  to  be  judged,  therefore,  not  by  the  beauty  or  ele- 
vation of  every  idea  that  may  be  found  in  its  literature, 
but  only  by  those  ideas  that  have  been  assimilated,  that 
have  become  incorporated  into  the  social  order.  These 
determine  a  people's  character  and  destiny.  According  as 
these  ideas  persist  in  the  social  order,  is  its  character 
permanent. 

Progress  consists  of  expanding  life,  communal  and  in- 
dividual, extensive  and  intensive,  physical  and  psychical. 
True  progress  is  balanced.  High  communal  development, 
that  is,  highly  organized  society,  is  impossible  without  the 
wide  attainment  of  highly  developed  individuals.  Pro- 
gressive mastery  of  nature  likewise  is  impossible  apart 
from  growing  psychic  development  in  all  its  branches, 
emotional,  intellectual  and  volitional,  communal  and 
individual. 

Historically,  communalism  is  the  first  principle  to 
emerge  in  consciousness.  To  succeed,  however,  it  must 
be  accompanied  by  at  least  a  certain  degree  of  individual- 
ism, even  though  it  be  quite  implicit.  The  full  develop- 
ment of  the  communal  principle  is  impossible  apart  from 
the  correspondingly  full  development  of  the  individual 
principle.  These  are  complementary  principles  of  prog- 
ress. Each  alone  is  impossible.  In  proportion  as  either 
is  emphasized  at  the  expense  of  the  other,  is  progress  im- 
peded. Arrested  civilizations  are  due  to  the  dispro- 
portionate and  excessive  development  of  one  or  the  other 
of  these  principles. 

Personality,  expressing  and  realizing  itself  in  com- 
munal and  individual  life,  in  objective  and  subjective 
forms,  is  at  once  the  cause  and  the  goal  of  progress. 
Social  and  psychic  evolution  are,  therefore,  in  the  last 
analysis,  personal  processes.     The  irreducible  and  final 


GENERAL   CONCLUSIONS  447 

factor  in  social  evolution  and  in  social  science  is  person- 
ality; for  personality  is  the  determinative  factor  of  a 
human  being. 

Progress  in  personal  development  consists  of  increas- 
ing extent  and  accuracy  of  knowledge,  refinement  and  ele- 
vation of  emotions,  and  nobility  and  reliability  of  voli- 
tions. Progress  in  personal  development  requires  the  indi- 
vidual to  pass  from  objective  heterocratic  to  subjective 
autocratic  or  self-regulative  ethical  life.  He  must  pass 
from  the  traditional  to  the  enlightened,  from  the  com- 
munal to  the  individualistic  stage  in  ethics  and  religion. 
He  must  feel  with  increasing  force  the  binding  nature  of 
the  supra-communal  sanctions  for  communal  and  indi- 
vidual life,  accepting  the  highest  dictates  of  the  enlight- 
ened moral  consciousness  as  the  laws  of  the  universe. 
But  this  means  that  the  individual  must  secure  increasing 
insight  into  the  immutable  and  eternal  laws  of  spiritual 
being  and  must  identify  his  personal  interests,  his  very 
self  with  those  laws,  with  the  Heart  of  the  Universe,  with 
God  himself.  Only  so  will  he  become  completely  autono- 
mous, self-regulative.  Only  thus  will  the  individual  be- 
come and  remain  an  altruistic  communo-individual,  fitted 
to  meet  and  survive  the  relaxation  of  the  historic  com- 
munal and  supra-communal  sanctions  for  communal  and 
individual  life,  a  relaxation  induced  by  growing  political 
liberty  and  growing  intellectual  rejection  of  primitive  or 
defective  religious  beliefs. 

Progress  in  personality  is  thus  at  bottom  an  ethico- 
religious  process.  The  wide  attainment  of  developed  per- 
sonality permits  the  formation  of  enlarging  highly  organ- 
ized psychic  groups,  accompanied  by  increasing  specializa- 
tion of  its  individual  members.  Tliis  communal  expan- 
sion, ramifying  organization  and  individual  specialization, 
secures  increasing  extensive  and  intensive  intellectual 
understanding  of  the  universe,  and  this  in  turn  active  mas- 
tery of  nature,  w^ith  all  the  consequences  of  growing  ease 
and  richness  of  life. 

Ethico-religious,  autonomous  personality  is  thus  the 
tap-root  of  highly  developed  and  permanently  progressive 
civilizations.  Personality  is,  therefore,  the  criterion  of 
progress.     Mere  ease  of  physical  life,  freedom  from  anx- 


448        EVOLUTION  OF  THE   JAPANESE 

icty,  light-hearted,  care-free  happiness,  mastery  of  nature, 
material  civilization,  highly  developed  art,  literature,  and 
music,  or  even  refined  culture,  are  partial  and  inadequate, 
if  not  positively  false,  criteria. 

Personality,  as  a  nature,  is  an  inherent  psychic  heritage 
shared  by  all  human  beings.  It  is  transmitted  only  from 
parents  to  offspring,  and  its  transmission  depends  only 
on  that  relation.  Personality,  as  a  varying  psychic  char- 
acteristic, is  a  matter  of  social  inheritance,  and  is  pro- 
foimdly  dependent,  therefore,  on  the  nature  of  the  social 
order  and  the  social  evolution. 

Religion,  as  incorporated  in  life,  is  the  most  important 
single  factor  determining  the  personality  and  character 
of  its  adherents,  either  hindering  or  promoting  their 
progress. 

Japanese  social  and  psychic  evolution  have  in  no  re- 
spects violated  the  universal  laws  of  evolution.  Japanese 
personal  and  other  psychic  characteristics  are  the  product 
not  of  essential,  but  of  social  inheritance  and  social  evolu- 
tion. Japan  has  recently  entered  into  a  new  social  inherit- 
ance from  which  she  is  joyfully  accepting  new  concep- 
tions and  principles  of  communal  and  individual  life. 
These  she  is  working  into  her  social  organism. 

Already  these  are  producing  profound,  and  we  may  be- 
lieve permanent,  transformations  in  her  social  order  and 
correspondingly  profound  and  permanent  transformations 
of  her  character  and  destiny. 


THE    END* 


INDEX 


"  Abdication  ":  in  church  work, 
84  ;  due  to  past  social  condi- 
tions, 86  ;  explains  promi- 
nence of  young  men,  86,  161, 

Esthetic  characteristics:  de- 
velopment unbalanced,  174; 
speech  and  conduct,  178;  de- 
velopment of  masses,  180;  de- 
velopment, social  not  racial, 
188 

Adoption:   family  maintained, 

215 

Affection:  post-mantal,  102;  its 
expression,  105 

Agnosticism,  old  not  new,  247 

Alcock,  Sir  Rutherford:  quota- 
tion misleading,  172;  on  un- 
truthfulness, 255 

Altruism,  social  or  racial?  365 

Ambition,  137 

Ancestral  worship  and  the  im- 
portance of  sons,  98 

Apotheosis,  147;  "Divine  right 
of  kings,"  151;  in  Japan  ex- 
presses unity,  152 

Architectural  development  and 
social  heredity,  188 

Arisaka,  Colonel,  inventions, 
207 

Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  16,  17 

Art:  simplicity  its  character- 
istic, 173;  lacking  the  nude, 
175-177;  its  ideal  in  represent- 
ing gods  and  men,  174;  de- 
fects, 184;  original  or  imita- 
tive? 203;  not  "impersonal," 

351  .    . 

Artistic  and  inartistic  con- 
trasts, 184 

Aston,  Mr.  W.  G.:  on  poetic 
form,  187;  intellectual  inferi- 
ority of   Japanese    claimed, 


218,  "Japanese  Literature," 
228 

Baelz,  Dr.  E.,  measurements  of 
skull,  191 

"  Bakufu,"  "  curtain  govern- 
ment," 214 

Bargaining,  a  personal  experi- 
ence, 212 

Baths,  public,  274;  cleanliness, 
316 

Birthday  festivals,  349;  method 
of  reckoning  age,  350 

Brain  weights,  comparative  fig- 
ures, 190 

Brown,  Rev.  S.  R.,  90 

Buckley,  Prof.  E.,  Phallic  wor- 
ship, 325 

Buddhism:  relation  to  the  fam- 
ily, 112;  suppression  of 
emotion,  166;  modified  in  Ja- 
pan,  197;  early  influence,  204; 
teachings  about  woman,  259; 
lack  of  moral  teachings,  269; 
rehgious  ecstasy,  297;  nature 
and  history,  306,  307;  terms 
"ingwa"  and  "mei,"  319; 
"  impersonal "  ?  377-38S;  intro- 
spection, 378;  salvation 
through  self,  379;  conscious- 
ness of  self,  highly  devel- 
oped, 379-380;  attributes  no 
worth  to  self,  380;  failure  of 
its  influence,  381;  mercy  to 
animals  and  shallow  reason- 
ing, 381;  thought  of  self  an 
intellectual  abstraction,  383; 
not  impersonal,  but  abstract, 
384;  doctrine  of  illusion,  384; 
failure  of  social  order,  385; 
popular  acceptance  not  philo- 
sophical,  386;    not    logically 


450 


INDEX 


carried  out,  389-390;  appeal  to 
personal  activity,  390;  con- 
version of  a  priest  to  Chris- 
tianity, 394;  conception  of 
God,  398;  the  universe  char- 
acterized, 400  ;  Nirvana,  400; 
supplementary  to  Shintoism, 
407;  popularity  explained, 
408;  individualism  defective, 
408;  not  exclusive  in  any 
land,  421 
Buddhistic  doctrines  and  socio- 
logical consequences,  388 

Caricature  in  art:  its  promi- 
nence, 177 

Cary's,  Rev.  Otis,  "Japan  and 
Its  Regeneration,"  10 

Chamberlain,  Prof.  B.  H.,  17, 
55.  159;  quotation  on  imita- 
tion,—  over-emphasis,  196; 
people  irreligious,  287 

Character  and  destiny,  445  ; 
how  judged,  446 

Children:  their  festivals,  96; 
love  for  the  young  in  Occi- 
dent and  Orient  compared, 
97;  infanticide,  100 

Chinese  characters  and  the 
common  schools,  192 

Chinese  philosophj^  not  ac- 
cepted without  question,  200 

Christianity  :  relation  to  the 
family,  111-114;  the  support 
of  new  ideals,  112;  fluctuating 
interest  in,  162,  163;  influence 
on  woman,  16S;  criticised  by 
a  Japanese,  231;  relation  to 
new  social  order,  282;  its 
growth  in  Japan,  308;  mono- 
theism, its  attraction,  311; 
its  view  of  the  universe,  399; 
involving  communalism  and 
individualism,  415 

Civilization:  two  types  in  con- 
flict, 13;  social  not  racial,  28; 
its  rapid  modernization,  30 

Clark.  Pres.,  90 

Cleanliness:  exaggerated  repu- 
tation, 315,  316 

Cocks  of  Tosa:  the  abnormal, 
178 


Communalism:  and  human 
progress,  332,  333;  defined, 
361;  its  altruism,  367;  throws 
light  on  religious  history, 
404;  difficulty  of  combining 
it  with  individualistic  reli- 
gious elements,  414;  Japan 
appreciates  its  spirit,  417 

Comte,  22 

Conceit,  139;  not  the  only  con- 
ceited nation,  142 

Concubinage:  children  of  the 
Emperor,  151;  Buddhistic 
and  Confucian  teaching,  259; 
its  sociological  interpreta- 
tion, 260;  increase  of,  278; 
statistics  of,  279 

Confidence  and  suspicion,  120; 
feudal  explanation,  121 

Confucian  ethics:  leave  gods 
alone,  2S6,  287;  antidote  to 
Buddhism,  390 

Confucianism:  its  relation  to 
the  family,  112;  modified  in 
Japan,  197;  metaphysical 
foundation  of,  228;  its  rela- 
tion to  moralitj',  269;  nature 
and  history  of,  307,  30S;  its 
doctrines  restored,  409;  its 
limitations,  410;  not  a  reli- 
gion, 411;  cause  of  failure, 
412 

Confucius  and  Lao-tse  about 
returning  good  for  evil,  128; 
influence  opposed  to  prog- 
ress, 204 

Constitution,  authority  from 
Emperor,  149 

Conversation:  realistic  bald- 
ness, 179 

Courtesy:  conventional  not  ra- 
cial, 182;  phrases  of,  211;  not 
proof  of  "  impersonality," 
362,  363 

Culture:  more  apparent  than 
real,  iSi 

Curiosity:  real  though  con- 
cealed,— illustration,  166 

"  Curtain  government."  its  sig- 
nificance, 214 

Daimyo,  a  figurehead,  214 


INDEX 


451 


Darwin,  22 

Decoration  of  rooms,  171 

Dening,    Mr.    Walter,   lack    of 

idealism,  233 
De  Quatref  ages,  African  brains, 

Deity:  conception  of,  310;  mon- 
otheistic jterms,  311;  com- 
mon people,  391 

Disposition;  apparently  cheer- 
ful, 115;  pessimists  out  of 
sight,  116 

Divorce:  grounds  for,  56;  fre- 
quency of,  99;  Civil  Code  of 
189S,  265;  statistics,  267;  di- 
vorce and    "  impersonality," 

352,  355 
Doshisha,  endangered,  123,  124; 

American     benefactors     of, 

281 
Drama    and  novel:    weakness 

explained,  187 
Drummond,  22 
Dwarfed     plants,— delight     in 

the  abnormal,  177 

Eastern  and  Western  civiliza- 
tions blending,  30-32 

Educational  Department  and 
Imperial  Edict,  32S 

Emotional  nature,  82-84;  due 
to  social  order,  169 

Emperor:  concubines  and  chil- 
dren of,  151 

English  study  and  methods  of 
thinking,  212 

Ethics:  pivotal  points,  283 

Etiquette:  superficial  not  radi- 
cal requirements,  183;  its  col- 
lapse explained,  183;  relation 
to  imagination,  235 

Evolution:  real  explanation  of 
progress,  24-27,  33-34;  na- 
tional, 332-343;  intellectual, 
419;  Involution  one  half  the 
process,  425;  defined,  440 

Express  train,  "  nominal  "  des- 
tination, 216 

Fairbanks,  Prof.,  20 
"  Falling  in  love  "  not  recog- 
nized, 102 


Family  life:  false  registration 

checks  affection,  107 
Far    East :     quotation    from, 
adaptation    of   foreign    sys- 
tems, 208 

Farmer,  higher  rank  than  mer- 
chant, 257 (note) 

Fate:  "  Ingwa,"  in  develop- 
ment of  personality,  386 

Feudal  times:  moderation,  118; 
courage  cultivated,  153,  154; 
trade,  284 

Fickleness  :  its  manifestation, 
159;  a  modern  trait,  160; 
shown  chiefly  in  methods, 
160;  among  Christians,  ap- 
parent not  real,  161 

Filial  obedience:  extreme  ap- 
plication, 263;  piety,  moral 
ideal,  249;  piety  and  religion, 
322 

Fiske,  22 

Flexibility  of  mental  constitu- 
tion, 77-78 

Flowering  trees,  171 

Forty-seven  Ronin,  89,  250 

Freedom:  relation  of  belief  to 
the  fact,  387 

Fukuzawa,  Mr. ,  on  monogamy, 
109,  112;  condemning  con- 
cubinage, 279;  on  religion, 
287 

Furniture:  recent  introduction, 
181 

Future  life:  Shinto,  Confucian, 
318;  Buddhistic,  319 

"  Geisha,"  dancing  girl,  vivac- 
ity, 168 

Generalization,  capacity  for, 
220;  use  of  philosophical 
terms,  221 

Giddings,  Prof.,  19,  22 

"Go-between,"  illustrations, 
210;  advantages,  211 

God:  Greek,  Buddhist,  Chris- 
tian, 399;  conceptions  com- 
pared, 400 

Governmental  initiative:  ex- 
plains rapid  reforms,  201 

Gratitude:  religious  sentiment, 
323;  ingratitude  shown,  324 


452 


INDEX 


Greek  universe  characterized, 
400 

Green,  T.  H.,  397  (note) 

Greene,  Dr.  D.  C,  teaching  of 
Shinto  sect,  269 

Griffis,  W.  E.,  on  suicide,  155; 
on  religions,  315 

Gubbins,  introduction  to  trans- 
lation of  New  Civil  Code  of 
Japan,  86;  on  woman's  posi- 
tion, 268 

Harris,  Townsend,  quoted,  132; 
regulation  by  authority,  204; 
as  to  untruthfulness,  256 

Hawaii,  musical  development, 
185 

Head,  size  of,  190 

Hearn,  Mr.  Lafcadio.  16,  17, 
68;  mistaken  contention,  263; 
privacy,  275;  gratitude,  323 

Hegel,  345;  "Nothing"  and 
Universal  Soul  of  Buddhism, 
383  (note) 

Heredity:  social  and  physiolog- 
ical contrasted,  21;  defined 
and  analyzed,  439 

Heroes  and  hero-worship,  89- 
95;  "  The  forty-seven  Ronin  " 
as  heroes,  89;  craving  for 
modern  heroes,  90-92:  Omi 
Sajin,  93;  Dr.  Neesima,  375 

Hirase,  Mr.,  scientist,  207 

History,  research  suppressed, 
205;  its  claims,  206;  apparent 
credulity  of  scholars  due  to 
social  system,  207 

"  Holy  towels,"  physical  dis- 
ease, 314 

Honesty:  decline  of,  280;  expla- 
nation, 282 

"  Honorifics,"  shades  of  cour- 
tesy, 179;  indefiniteness  of 
speech,  211 

Houses,     privacy     impossible, 

273 
Housewife,      simple      require- 
ments, 181 

Idealizing  tendency,  94,  236 
Idols,  imported  feature  of  Jap- 
anese religion,  174 


Ikeno,  Mr.,  scientific  discovery, 
207 

Illusion,  393 

Imagination:  is  it  lacking  ?  233; 
shown  in  etiquette,  political 
life,  ambition,  self-conceit, 
etc.,  235;  seen  in  optimism, 
240;  related  to  fancy, — cari- 
cature, 241;  not  disproved  by 
imitation,  242;  sociological 
explanation,  243;  construc- 
tive, 246;  suppression  of,  246 

Imitation  in  Japanese  progress, 
78-81;  creditable  characteris- 
tic, 196 

Immorality,  increase  of,  261 

Impassiveness,  "putty-face," 
164 

Imperial  and  popular  sover- 
eignty,     conflict      between, 

152-153 

Imperial  Edict,  328 

Imperialists  during  the  Shogun- 
ate,  146 

Imperial  succession  of  Orien- 
tal type,  150 

"  Impersonality"  :  Hegel,  345: 
definitions  contradictory,  347, 
348;  related,  to  art,  351;  fam- 
ily life,  352;  divorce,  352; 
"  falling  in  love,"  354;  defini- 
tion, 359,  360;  outcome  of 
social  order,  361;  not  proved 
by  courtesy  of  people,  362, 
363,  nor  by  lack  of  personal 
pronouns,  368;  arguments 
against,  377;  diverse  ele- 
ments analyzed,  381;  objec- 
tion to  term,  3S5 

"  Impersonality  "  and  altruism, 

365 

Impractical  idealism:  claimed 
by  Japanese,  236;  illustra- 
tions, 237,  23S 

"In,"  and  "Yo,"  significance 
of,  221 

India  and  Japan  contrasted, 
32-34 

Indirectness,  210 

Individual,  small  value,  25S 

Individualism:  expressed,  245, 
246;   changing    social    order 


INDEX 


453 


and  honesty,  282;  importance 
of,  334;  how  possible,  335; 
defined,  361;  easy  acceptance 
explained,  413 

Individualistic  religion  as  a  so- 
ciological factor  in  higher, 
human  evolution,  418 

Infanticide,  loo-ioi 

"  Ingwa,"  fate,  386 

Inouye,  Dr.  T.,  Japonicized 
Christianity,  39;  claims  for 
Japanese,  205;  philosophical 
writer,  229 

Intellectual  characteristics,  so- 
cial,  244 

Inventions:  originality,  207 

Irreligious  phenomena  ex- 
plained, 302,  303 

Ishii,  Mr.,  father  of  orphan 
asylums  in  Japan,    94,    131, 

145 
Isolation  of  nations  impossible, 

71 
Ito,  Marquis,  on  religion,  288 
lyeyasu:    his    testament,    253; 

use  of  Confucian  doctrines, 

409 

Japanese  people:  international 
responsibility,  13;  need  of 
understanding  them,  15-20; 
change  of  opinion  regarding, 
23-25;  defects,  conscious  of, 
143;  acquaintance  with,  428; 
reasons  for  difficulty  in  ac- 
quaintance with,  429,  430; 
secret  of  acquaintance,  431 

Japan  Mail:  quotation,  130; 
originality  of  Japanese  art, 
203:  on  wealth,  277;  on  hon- 
esty, 280;  on  acquaintance, 
428 

Jealousy  and  women,  127-128 

Kato,  Mr.  H.,  229;  on  religion, 
288;  patriotism  is  loyalty  to 
throne,  373 

"  Ki,"  defined,  221 

Kidd,  22 

Kissing  unknown,  105 

Kitazato,  Dr.,  scientific  re- 
search, 207 


Knapp,  Mr.  A.  M.,  16 

Knox,  Dr.  G.  W.,  quotation, 
199;  "A  Japanese  Philos- 
opher," 228;  translator  of 
Muro  Kyuso,  249 

Ladd,  Prof.  G.  T.,  94;  senti- 
mentality'of  Japanese,  234 

Language:  its  acquirement  and 
Japanese  students,  194;  di- 
versities of,  not  due  to  diver- 
sities in  brain  type,  195 

Lao-tse,  on  doing  good  in  re- 
turn for  evil.  128 

Le  Bon's  physiological  theory 
of  character  inadequate,  13- 
20;  quotation,  51;  dissent 
from  opinion,  188;  quotation, 
424 

Le  Conte,  22 

Literature,  ancient,  its  im- 
purity, 252 

Lowell,  Mr.  Percival,  "  The 
Soul  of  the  Far  East,"  102, 
344;  Japanese  unimaginative, 
234;  opinion  criticised,  241; 
"  sense  and  incense,"  286; 
pilgrimages,  291;  "imperson- 
ality," 359,  363,  374;  teaching 
of  philosophic  Buddhism,  37S 

Loyalty  and  religion,  322;  sen- 
timental, 148,  149 

Lunatics  and  lepers,  cruel 
treatment,  130 

Magic  formulae,  320 

Man  and  nature:  differing  ar- 
tistic treatment  of,  175 

Manners:  influenced  by  West- 
ern ways,  182 

Marriage,  Civil  Code  of  1898, 
265 

Marsh,  Prof.,  size  of  Japanese 
brain,  190 

"  Matter-of-factness  "  explain- 
ed, 245 

Memorizing:  mechanical,  222; 
defective  method,  223;  as  re- 
lated to  higher  mental 
powers,  223 

Memory:  power  overrated,  192; 
in  daily  affairs  not  exceed- 


454 


INDEX 


ing  Occidental,  193;  charac- 
teristics sociological,  not  bi- 
ological, 194 

Mnemonic  power  and  social  se- 
lection, 193 

Mencius,  teaching,  the  "  Way  " 
of   Heaven    and   Earth,    250 

Mental  faculties:  are  the  Japa- 
nese deficient?  218;  power  of 
generalization,  221 

Metaphysical  tendencies,  227: 
denial  of  ability  unjustifiable, 
227 

Metaphysics  and  ethics,  228 

Monotheism,  why  attractive, 
312 

Morality:  courage  in  persecu- 
cution,  156;  illustration,  158; 
discrimination  developed, 
249;  parents,  children,  pa- 
triots, 249;  ideals  communal, 
255;  standards  differing  for 
men  and  women,  263;  teaching 
focused  on  rulers,  270;  Im- 
perial Edict,  271;  standards 
of,  and  individualism,  275, 
276;  social,  not  racial,  283;  on 
authority,  2S4;  morality  and 
Old  Japan,  261,  264 

Motora,  Prof.  Y.,  229 

Miiller,  Prof.  Max,  statement 
about  Vedas,  193 

Murata  rifle,  invention  of,  207 

Muro  Kyuso,  philosopher,  249; 
ancient  books  condemned, 
252;  on  immoralit3^  2S6; 
teachings,  299,  300 

Music,  Japanese  deficiency,  185 

Nakashima,  Prof.  Rikizo,  229 

Nash,  Prof.  H.  S.,  on  Apothe- 
osis in  Rome,  153 

National  life,  stimulus  from  the 
West,  43-48 

Natural  scenery  in  art,  173 

Neesima,  Dr.,  founder  of  the 
Doshisha,  94;  monotheism, 
311;  his  character,  375 

"  Netsuke,"  comical  carvings, 
241 

New  aeon,  characterized, 14;  the 
consequences,  15 


Newton's,     Rev.     J.     C.     E., 

"  Japan:  Country,  Court,  and 

People  "  10,  46 
"  Nichiren,"  a  sect,  198 
Nirvana  characterized,  400 
Nitobe's,    Prof.    J.,   "  Bushido: 

The  Soul  of  Japan."  10 
"Nominal":      Pedigree,      215; 

church     contributions,     216; 

express  train,  216 
"  Nominality":    illustrated    in 

history,    213;    in  family  life, 

214;   in  Christian  work,  216; 

explained  by  old  order,  217; 

giving  way    under  Western 

influence,  217 
Norman,    Mr.    Henry,    17;   his 

"  Real  Japan,"  46 
Nude  in  art:  its  lack,  175-177 

Obsequiousness,  140 

Occident  and  Orient:  conflict 
not  unending,  13;  social  in- 
tercourse and  mutual  in- 
fluence, 436 

Occidental  civilization;  a  de- 
fect in,  71 

Ohashi.  Junzo,  opposed  to 
Western  thought,  254 

Old  Japan,  35-37;  its  oppres- 
sion, 53,  54;  emptiness  of 
common  life,  54;  condition  of 
W'oman,  54,  56;  divorce,  56, 
57;  moral  and  legal  maxims, 
252,  253;  its  morality,  244,  261 

"  Omi  Sajin,"  Sage  of  Omi,  93 

Oriental  characteristics  :  are 
they  distinctive?  422;  gen- 
eral opinion  of,  423;  view  of 
author,  425;  social,  not  racial, 
425.  434 

Originality  in  art,  203;  judi- 
cious imitation,  209 

Orphan  asylums,  131 

Oyomei,  228 

Patriotism,  48-51;  relation  to 
apotheosis,  144,  15S;  to  war, 
145;  Christian  orphans,  145 

Peasants,  stolidity,  165 

Pedigree,  "nominal"  not  ac- 
tual ancestry,  215 


INDEX 


455 


Peery,  Dr.,  Japanese  philo- 
sophical incompetence,  225 
Personality:  21-22;  importance 
of,  342;  defined,  356-357;  char- 
acteristics of,  358;  "  strong  " 
and  "weak,"  374,  375;  Con- 
fucian ethics,  390;  Supreme 
Being,  391;  gods  of  popular 
Buddhism,  391;  idea  grasped 
by  Japanese,  393;  sketch  of 
development,  394;  racial  or 
social  inheritance,  395;  prog- 
ress in  ethico-religious  proc- 
ess, 447;  the  criterion  of 
progress,  447 
Personality  in    conception    of 

nationality,  373 
Personal  pronouns,  their  lack 
possible  proof  of  personality, 
369;    "honorific"     particles, 
368;  substitutes,  370,  371 
Pfleiderer,  Prof.,  religious  de- 
ficiency of  Japanese,  286 
Phallicism:  its  suppression,  325; 

Western  influence,  326 
Philosophy:    Occidental    igno- 
rance of  its  history  in  Japan, 
200;  terms    used,  221;    Japa- 
nese  students  of,    229;  indi- 
viduals interested,  229 
Philosophical   ability,    225-232; 
Japanese     claims,    225;   con- 
structive power,  226;  writers 
mentioned,    229;     East    and 
West  compared,  231 
Pilgrimages:     statistics,     290- 

291;  immorality,  326 
Poetry  characterized,  186 
Powder,   smokeless,   invention 

of,  207 
Pride,  sociological  explanation, 

19,  21 
Progress,  modern  character- 
istic, 52-60;  defined,  57;  light- 
heartedness  no  proof  of,  59; 
its  method,  61-71;  recognition 
of  individual  worth,  63-67; 
knowledge  of  implements 
and  methods,  67-70;  imita- 
tion. 78-81;  passion  for  it,  143 
Psychic  nature  and  social 
life,  439 


Psychic  evolution,  444 

Psychic  function  and  psychic 
organism,  445 

Psychological  similarities,  Jap- 
anese and  Anglo-Saxon,  189 

Public  speaking,  fluency,  219 

"  Putty-face,"  164 

"  Race-soul,"  444 

Ranaome,  Mr.  Stanford,  quot- 
ed, 51;  "Japan  in  Transi- 
tion," 46 

Reforms,  governmental  initia- 
tive, 201 

Religion:  its  characteristics 
social,  not  racial,  309;  loyalty 
and  filial  piety,  322;  liberty 
in  belief,  327;  the  Imperial 
Edict,  328;  forms  determined 
by  history,  329;  the  problem 
of  to-day,  414;  Religions 
classified,  421 

Religious  or  not  ?  appearances 
explained,  286;  judged  by 
phenomena,  288;  prayer, 
shrines,  charms,  292;  Bud- 
dha-shelves, God-shelves, 
293;  emotion  and  social 
training,  296;  emotion  shown 
in  abstraction,  297 

Religious  life,  404,  421;  com- 
munal, 404;  present  difficulty 
in  Japan, 420 

Renaissance  of  Japan,  29-30 

Revenge:  the  ancient  law,  128; 
teachings  of  Confucius  and 
Lao-tse,  128-129 

Reverence,  apparent  lack  of, 
304 

"  Ri"  defined,  221 

Roman  alphabet:  adoption 
recommended  by  many,  192 

"  Roundaboutness":  charac- 
teristic of  speech  and  action, 
211;  recent  improvement. 
212 

Sadness  and  isolation  of  many, 

116 
Sage  of  Omi,  see  "  Omi  Sajin." 
Salvation  and  sin,   314;   Bud- 
dhist and  Christian,  379 


456 


INDEX 


Samurai:  high  mental  power, 
social    leaders,    impractical, 

U244;   their  relation  to  trade, 
252;   iiew  ideals,  256;  revolt 
from  religious  forms,  2^ 
egregation  and"dtv«rg^ent  evo- 
lution, 443 
Self-confidence     not     without 
grounds,  141,  143;   reorgani- 
zation  by  3'oung  men,  141- 
142 
Self-control:    moral    teaching, 
250;     Kujuro,    the    self-con- 
trolled, 251 
Sensitiveness  to  environment, 
72,  81;  illustrated  by  students 
abroad,  73,  by  life  in  Japan, 

73-77 

Shimose,  Mr.,  invention, 
smokeless    powder,    207 

"  Shinshu,"  "  Reformed"  Bud- 
dhism, 198 

Shinto:  nature  and  history, 
305,  306;  personal  gods,  391; 
communal,  405;  no  longer  a 
religion,  405;  world  view, 
406;  religious  sanction  for 
social  order,  407;  revived, 
412 

Sin,  terminology,  313;  con- 
sciousness of,  317;  instance 
of  conversion,  318 

Shusi,  228 

Social  evil,  the,  261  (note) 

Social  segregation  and  social 
divergence,  21 

Social  and  racial  unity  dis- 
tinguished, 443 

Social  evolution  convergent, 
14;  principle  revealed,  15; 
personal  process,  446 

Social  heredity,  transmitting 
results  of  toil,  71 

Social  intercourse  of  Occident 
and  Orient,  436 

Social  order  from  the  West, 
413;  the  parting  of  the  ways, 
414 

Sociological  theory  of:  charac- 
ter, 14,  446;  pride,  20;  fear 
of  ridicule.  73;  cruelty,  135; 
kindness,  136;  stolidity,  163; 


power  of  generalization,  222; 
philosophical  development, 
231;  apparent  deficiencj'  in 
imagination,  236;  differences 
characterizing  Eastern  and 
Western  psychic  nature,  247, 
435;  untruthfulness,  256;  con- 
cubinage, 260;  religious  char- 
acteristics, 309,  321;  the  sup- 
pression of  Phallicism,  327; 
religious  tolerance,  329;  di- 
vorce and  "falling  in  love," 
355;  courtesy,  363,  364;  the 
personal  pronoun,  372;  the 
failure  of  Buddhism,  3S5; 
the  conception  of  Fate,  3S7 

Sociology  and  individual  re- 
ligion, 405;  and  Shintoism, 
407 

Southerland,  22 

"Soul  of  Japan,"  the,  144 

"  Soul  of  the  Far  East,"  quota- 
tion, 234 

Spencer,  22 

Stolidity:  easily  distinguished 
from  stoicism,  164,  165;  the 
peasants,  165;  social,  not 
racial,  167;  cultivated,  168 

Students:  testimony  of  foreign 
teachers,  218;  at  home  and 
abroad,  219 

Suicide,  a  matter  of  honor, 
154-156 

Sutra,  translation  of,  402 

Suspiciousness  and  military 
feudalism,  125-126 

Taguchi,  Dr.,  brain  statistics, 
190 

Tai-ku  Reform,  epoch-making 
period.  201 

Takahashi,  Mr.  G.,  229;  the 
monks  and  consciousness  of 
sin,  317 

Taste  and  lack  of  taste  in 
woman's  dress,  182 

Temples,  statistics,  296 

Tokugawa  Shogunate.  38-40; 
how  overthrown,  40-43;  pro- 
hibitive of  progress,  204;  last 
of  "  Curtain  governments," 
214 


INDEX 


457 


Torture,    in    Japan,    132;     in 

Europe,  133 
Toys  and  toy-stores,  96 
Trade  estimates,  256;  Old  Ja- 
pan,  the  Greeks,  the  Jews 
compared,    257,  note;   trade 
and  the  feudal  order,  284 
Transmigration,    319;     theory 

illogical,  but  helpful,  389 
Truthfulness,  undeveloped,  255 
Tyranny  and  Western  wives 
106 

Unaesthetic  phenomena,  179 

Verbeck,  Dr.  G.  F.,  91 
Visionary  tendency,  236,  237 
Vivacity,  Geisha  girl,  168 

Wallace,  22 

Ward,  22 

"  Way,"  see  Muro  Kyuso,  250; 

reference  to,  287 
Wealth  increasing,  277 


Wedding,  Prince  Imperial, 
268;  Imperial  silver  wedding, 
268 

Woman:  obedience,  55,  56; 
estimates  of  East  and  West 
contrasted,  102-103;  Western 
estimates,  recent  growth, 
III,  113  (note);  Buddhist  and 
Confucian  teaching,  112,  259; 
jealousy,  127;  her  position, 
258;  influenced  by  Hindu 
philosophy,  258;  improve- 
ment, 268 

Writing,  a  fine  art,  173 

Xavier,  Francis,  308 

Yamaguchi,  Mr.,  quotation. 
149;     the    Imperial    throne, 

373 
"  Yamato  Damashii,"i'^^  "The 

Soul  of  Japan." 
"  Yumei-mujitsu,"  see  "  Nomi- 

nality." 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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